Despite Bat Struggles, Wahoos Split Two with M-Braves
August 20, 2019 - Southern League (SL1)
Pensacola Blue Wahoos News Release
Alex Kirilloff of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos
(Pensacola Blue Wahoos)
Only once in two games Monday were the Blue Wahoos able to produce consecutive hits in setting up a productive inning.
That was enough, however, to earn a pivotal split in their road doubleheader against the Mississippi Braves.
The Blue Wahoos broke a tie game with a pair of sixth-inning runs, then rode Gabriel Moya's clutch relief effort in the second game for a 4-2 win and further push in their divisional playoff race.
In the first game, Bryan Sammons tossed a one-hitter, but absorbed a hard-luck 1-0 loss on a night dominated by the teams' quality pitching at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Miss.
The twinbill split, coupled with the Biloxi Shuckers' third consecutive loss Monday, moved the Blue Wahoos within four games of the Southern League South Division leaders.
The Blue Wahoos (69-57 overall, 31-25 second half) have a commanding lead in a wild-card, playoff position should Biloxi hold off Jacksonville (2 games back) in the second-half division race. The Shuckers won the first half, division crown.
The Blue Wahoos, winners in seven of their last eight games, got their bats going in Monday's second game, after being held to two hits and having few chances in the first game. Both games were seven innings and moved quickly.
The first game was completed in 92 minutes.
Sammons and the M-Braves starter Jasseel De La Cruz, a top 20 prospect in the Atlanta Braves system, were near perfect. The only run allowed was Riley Unroe's, solo homer in the sixth inning off Sammons.
The Blue Wahoos had a runner in scoring position in three of the innings, including the final one in the seventh when Caleb Hamilton led off with a walk. He moved to second on a one out, wild pitch.
But M-Braves' reliever Bradley Roney, who started the sixth inning, got Jimmy Kerrigan to fly out, as Hamilton tagged and went to third. Roney struck out Ryan Costello to end the game.
It snapped the Blue Wahoos' five game win streak. The Blue Wahoos only hits in the first game were a first inning single by Willians Astudillo, the Minnesota Twins catcher in his fifth game of rehab assignment, then a third-inning single from Alex Kirilloff.
Sammons allowed just two walks and struck out five in working a complete game.
In game two, Kirilloff led off with a double. Trevor Larnach followed with a two-out, two-run homer over of the right field wall.
After the M-Braves tied the game in the bottom of the first, Blue Wahoos starter Cole Sands, making his Double-A level debut, settled into groove.
Sands, called up from Advanced-A Fort Myers, retired nine of the next 10 batters, including eight in succession, to produce a strong outing.
Moya, a former Twins reliever, worked two scoreless innings to earn his first win with Pensacola.
The Blue Wahoos got their go-ahead runs after Ryan Jeffers and Mark Contreras began the sixth-inning with back-to-back singles. Kerrigan followed with a perfect bunt to move bother runners into scoring position.
Costello hit a deflected ground ball that became an RBI fielder's choice when Jeffers beat the throw to the plate.
Kirilloff then drove in Contreras. Jeffers and Kirilloff both had two hits among the eight produced by the Blue Wahoos.
The teams will meet at 6:35 p.m. in the fourth game Tuesday of their six-game series. The next three days will be full games.
Images from this story
 Alex Kirilloff of the Pensacola Blue Wahoos |
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