SL1 Mississippi Braves

M-Braves Walk Off with Game One

Published on May 17, 2007 under Southern League (SL1)
Mississippi Braves News Release


The Mississippi Braves and the Tennessee Smokies faced off in a battle of the two first-placed teams in the Southern League. The M-Braves downed the Smokies in dramatic fashion in front of 4,010 fans at Trustmark Park Thursday night.

Mississippi and Tennessee battled to a scoreless tie through the first four innings. The Braves failure to get the big hit and Matt Harrison's domination of the Smokies lineup left the two teams tied at the end of four-and-a-half innings. The Braves finally broke through with a run in the bottom of the fourth frame when Mike Rozema led off the inning with a double down the left field line. Two batters later, J.C. Holt drove him in with a single to center giving Mississippi a 1-0 lead. The M-Braves went on to load the bases, but failed to drive in another run.

Tennessee finally got to Harrison in the top of the fifth. Three singles and a double plated two runs for the Smokies and gave the visitors a 2-1 lead.

The Braves came back to tie the score at two in the bottom of the fifth when Carl Loadenthal got his second hit of the game, a single to right, to lead off the inning. He moved to second on a perfectly placed sac bunt by Clint Sammons and an infield single by Mike Rozema. Josh Burrus' pinch-hit sac fly to center brought Loadenthal in to score the game-tying run.

The score remained tied at two until the bottom of the ninth when Holt drew a walk to lead off the bottom of the ninth and moved to second on a sac bunt by Lillibridge. Brandon Jones singled to right bringing Holt in to score the game-winning run from second.

Harrison gave up two runs on six hits through 5.2 innings and did not factor into the decision. Jose Ascanio threw one-third of an inning to get the M-Braves out of a jam and then handed the game over to Zach Schreiber in the seventh. Schreiber threw two scoreless innings and passed the game on to Joey Devine in the ninth. Devine improved to 2-2 on the year after throwing one scoreless inning.

Tennessee's starter Justin Berg gave up two runs on 11 hits through 5.1 innings and did not factor into the decision. Paul Schappert didn't allow a run through two-thirds of an inning for the Smokies. Greg Reinhard came on in the seventh and threw two scoreless innings. Jerry Blevins gave up one run in the ninth and fell to 0-1 on the season.

The Braves and the Smokies face off in game two of this five-game series Friday night at 7:05 pm. Mississippi is scheduled to send lefty Jo-Jo Reyes to the hill while Tennessee is scheduled to counter with righty Kevin Hart.

Braves Bites:

The M-Braves had five players with at least two hits in the game (Holt, Lillibridge, Jones, Loadenthal, and Rozema).

Brandon Jones went 3-4 with the game-winning RBI single in the ninth.

Josh Burrus got a pinch-hit sac fly to tie the game in the sixth.

J.C. Holt went 2-4 with an RBI and a run scored in the game.

Check out the Mississippi Braves Statistics

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Southern League Stories from May 17, 2007


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