Gazebo Gazette
Braden Webb (W, 1-0) twirled six one-hit innings to earn his first Double-A win, as the Biloxi Shuckers (80-57, 37-28) blanked the Birmingham Barons (64-71, 32-35) 7-0 on Friday night at MGM Park.
Webb allowed a leadoff single to Joel Booker in the first at bat of the game. Shuckers pitching then kept Birmingham out of the hit column for the remainder of the contest. Webb tied a career high by striking ten Barons over his six innings. The righty set down six consecutive hitters on strikes in the fourth and fifth frames en route to the win.
Biloxi’s offense handed Webb run support early and often. Blake Allemand started the scoring with a solo home run to right field in the second, his fifth of the year. Troy Stokes Jr. added a two-run single in the third off Felix Paulino (L, 0-2) to extend the lead to 3-0. In the fifth, the first four Shuckers reached against Paulino. Stokes provided a two-run double followed by Weston Wilson’s first Double-A home run, a two-run shot to left to break the game open and give Biloxi a 7-0 advantage.
Miguel Sanchez tossed two scoreless relief innings followed by a clean ninth from Nattino Diplan to finish off the shutout for Biloxi.
The win puts the Shuckers 1.5 games ahead of second place Pensacola and two games up on Mississippi with three games left in the regular season. The one-hit performance was the third of its kind from Biloxi pitching this season and the 11th Shuckers’ shutout.
The Shuckers earned their franchise-record 79th win of the season with a 3-2 walk-off win over the Birmingham Barons Thursday night at MGM Park. Gabriel Noriega’s two-run single in the tenth provided the ninth walk-off win of the season for Biloxi.
Both starting pitchers shut down the opposition with quality starts. Zack Brown churned out six frames while allowing just four hits and striking out three. Tanner Banks bested Brown by lasting seven with four strikeouts to his name.
The run that each pitcher surrendered came on a pair of sacrifice flies. The Shuckers plated their run in the second. After Trent Grisham led off with a double, Luis Aviles Jr. brought him in on a fly ball out to right field. In the sixth, Brown’s last inning of work, Booker’s leadoff double came around on a Zack Collins sac fly to tie the game at one.
The relief cores for Biloxi and Birmingham kept things square to the tenth inning without either team posing a threat. The Barons brought their bonus runner home in the top of the tenth. Trey Michalczewski scored after a sacrifice fly from Danny Mendick followed a sacrifice bunt, but Jon Olczak (W, 10-3) polished off his two innings of work by allowing just the singular unearned run.
In the bottom of the frame, Biloxi began their threat when Grisham plopped a perfect drag bunt down the first base line to put runners at the corners. Allemand sent a ground ball to third base where Michalczewski had difficulty making up his mind. The third baseman thought about grabbing an out at second, but tried to tag out Wilson who dove back into third base safely, loading the bases with nobody out. Noriega then stepped up and delivered the game-winning, two-run single off Brian Clark (L, 2-4) that scored both Wilson and Grisham.
The walk-off win marks the 79th of the season for Biloxi, a new franchise record. It is their ninth walk-off of the year and third in the month of August.
