SL1 Mississippi Braves

Brignac Delivers Biscuits in SLDS Game One

Published on September 6, 2007 under Southern League (SL1)
Mississippi Braves News Release


The Mississippi Braves and Montgomery Biscuits entered game one as polar opposites. Montgomery won the Southern League Championship last year. Mississippi was making its first playoff appearance ever. The Biscuits dominated the league and finished with the best overall record after going 46-24 in the second half. Mississippi struggled throughout the second half and finished 20.5 games behind the Biscuits.

With all that said, the M-Braves had a shot to win this one.

Montgomery jumped on the Braves in the top of first. Fernando Perez ripped a single to left and Josh Asanovich drew a walk. Biscuits' shortstop Reid Brignac ripped a double to right-center that plated Perez and Asanovich to give Montgomery a 2-0 advantage. Brignac moved to third on an error by T.J. Bohn and scored on a 4-3 groundout by John Jaso.

Mississippi answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning. J.C. Holt led off with a double to center and moved to third on a single by Carl Loadenthal. Holt came in to score when Diory Hernandez hit into a fielder's choice. Hernandez stole second to move into scoring position and T.J. Bohn ripped a single to center. Hernandez scored easily to cut the lead to 3-2.

With two outs in the second, Josh Asanovich blasted a homer out to left field to push the Biscuits lead back to two at 4-2.

Mississippi cut into the lead in the third after Holt got things going with an infield single. He stole second and Loadenthal moved him to third with a grounder to second. Holt later scored on a wild pitch to pull the Braves to within one at 4-3.

The Braves tied the score in the fourth when Van Pope reached on a fielder's choice and stole second to get into scoring position. Holt then ripped a single to right that plated Pope from second to tie the game at four. Holt moved to second on the throw home and Loadenthal singled him home to give the Braves their first lead of the game at 5-4.

Asanovich led off the fifth with his second extra-base hit of the game and came in to tie the score on a single by Jaso.

Matt Young singled to start the sixth, but was ejected from the game after getting picked off at first base. The potential Braves' rally came to a screeching halt.

Montgomery put runners on the corners with one out in the top of the ninth and Asanovich attempted a safety squeeze to get the go-ahead runner home. On the squeeze attempt, he popped up to first to give the Braves the second out of the inning. Brignac then hit a chopper that found its way into right field to give the Biscuits a 6-5 lead.

Holt doubled to put the tying runner at third in the bottom of the ninth, but the Braves couldn't get him home as they lost, 6-5.

Braves' starter Ryan Baerlocher came out of the game due to an unspecified injury in the top of the first. He threw only four pitches. Brad Nelson came on in relief and gave up four runs on seven hits in five innings of work. Michael Nix gave up a run in the ninth and fell to 0-1 in the playoffs.

Montgomery's Wade Davis gave up five runs on six hits through four innings of work. He left the game with the score tied at five. Richard De Los Santos threw two scoreless innings and Brian Henderson threw one scoreless. Evan Meek threw a scoreless inning to improve to 1-0 in the playoffs and Tim Corcoran shutout the Braves in the ninth to record his first playoff save.

The Braves and the Biscuits will play game two of the Southern League South Divisional Series Friday night at Trustmark Park at 7:05. In game two, the Braves will send righty Charlie Morton to the hill while the Biscuits will counter with lefty Jake McGee.

Braves Bites:

- Braves' starter Ryan Baerlocher left the game after throwing only four pitches ... His injury was unspecified.

- J.C. Holt went 4-5 two singles, two doubles, an RBI, and three runs scored ... He also stole a base.

- Carl Loadenthal went 2-5 with an RBI.

Check out the Mississippi Braves Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Southern League Stories from September 6, 2007


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central