Braves Crush Barons: W, 8-3

Mississippi's domination of the Birmingham Barons continued Friday night as Mississippi defeated Birmingham 8-3.

The M-Braves jumped on top in the top of the first when J.C. Holt singled and Brandon Jones blasted his 10th homer of the year down the left field line. It marked the 44th time this season the M-Braves scored first and they’ve now scored 51 runs in the first inning.

Birmingham responded with a run in the bottom of the first. Robert Valido and Victor Mercedes got back-to-back singles to lead off the inning. Thomas Collaro then drew a walk to load the bases. Former Greenville Brave Cory Aldridge hit a sac fly to center that scored Valido and cut the lead to 2-1. Holt then turned a grounder by Donny Lucy into a spectacular double play to get the M-Braves out of the inning.

Mississippi extended their lead in the second when Mark Jurich singled and Van Pope blasted a no-doubter over the left-center field wall. Pope’s second homer of the year gave the M-Braves a 4-1 lead.

Birmingham answered the M-Braves in the second when three singles from Ricardo Nanita, Jeremy Frost, and Michael Myers loaded the bases with no outs. Once again, Matt Harrison held the Barons to one run as he induced a foul out by Sean Smith and a fly out to center to Mercedes. He gave up a sac fly to Valido that brought Nanita to the plate with the Barons second run.

Mississippi added another run in the third when Diory Hernandez ripped a two-out double to left center. Clint Sammons single brought Hernandez to the plate with the M-Braves fifth run of the game.

Once again, Birmingham answered the Braves score with a run of their own in the bottom of the third. With two outs, Lucy and Nanita singled to set the stage for Frost. Frost singled to center bringing Lucy to the plate, making the score 5-3.

The M-Braves put the game out of reach with a three-spot in the sixth. Mike Rozema got the rally started when he reached second on a two-base error by Mercedes. Van Pope then doubled down the left field line scoring Rozema. Pope moved to third on a single by J.C. Holt and scored on another error by Mercedes. Holt moved to second on the error and came in to score on a single by Brandon Jones to give Mississippi an 8-3 lead.

Mike Rozema’s grand slam in the ninth gave the M-Braves a 12-3 lead.

Matt Harrison gave up three runs on 10 hits through six innings of work and improved to 5-1 on the year. Michael Nix came on and threw two shutout innings. Zach Schreiber threw a scoreless ninth to finish off the Barons.

Adam Russell gave up five runs on seven hits through four innings of work and left the game trailing 5-3 and fell to 5-5 on the season. Tim Bittner gave up three runs on five hits in three innings of work. Eduardo Sierra threw a scoreless inning while Fernando Hernandez gave up four runs on four hits in an inning of work.

With this win, Montgomery’s loss, and Jacksonville’s win, the M-Braves lead in the Southern League South is 6.0 games. The Braves magic number is three with eight games to play in the first half.

The Braves and Barons play game three of this five-game series tomorrow night at 7:05 pm. Mississippi is scheduled to send righty James Parr (0-0, 5.73) to the hill in search of his first AA win of the year while Birmingham is scheduled to send lefty Gio Gonzalez (4-3, 3.05) to the hill in search of his fifth win.

Braves Bites:
* The M-Braves are now 32-12 when they score first … they’ve scored first 44 times this year … Mississippi has scored 51 runs in the first inning this year.
* Brandon Jones blasted his 10th homer of the year … He went 3-5 with three RBI and a run scored.
* J.C. Holt went 3-5 with two runs scored … He’s now hit in 20 of 23 games in Mississippi this year.
* Mark Jurich extended his season-high hitting streak to 11 games with a single in the second … He went 1-4 with a run scored.
* Mike Rozema went 1-5 with a grand slam … It was the M-Braves first grand slam since Josh Burrus did it on 5/2.
* Mississippi now has 51 homers on the year … They had 65 in all of ’06.
* The M-Braves came into the game tied with Montgomery for the league-lead in double plays with 61 … They turned one in the game giving them 62 for the year.
* Five M-Braves had at least two hits and four Braves had three hits.

by
Nick Skinner
(Mississippi Braves.com)