Braves Lose First Series to Barons: L, 9-6

Birmingham jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the first after a Diory Hernandez error extended the Barons inning. Five singles, an error, and a walk plated Robert Valido, Victor Mercedes, Jeremy West, Chris Kelly, and Jeremy Frost.

The Braves got on the board in the second as Matt Esquivel hit his 14th homer of the year, a solo shot that gave him 50 RBIs for the season.

The Barons added three more runs in the second. Victor Mercedes and Thomas Collaro got back-to-back singles to start the rally before Cory Aldridge doubled to center. Aldridge’s double brought Mercedes and Collaro to the plate to push the lead to 7-1. A walk to West and a single by Kelly loaded the bases for Frost who hit a sac fly to center that brought Aldridge to the plate making the score 8-1.

The M-Braves cut into the lead again in the third when Brandon Jones blasted his 11th homer of the year, a two-run shot, over the left-center field wall. Jones’ 43rd and 44th RBIs made the score 8-3, Barons.

Mississippi cut the lead to 8-5 in the sixth after drawing three consecutive two-out walks to load the bases. Carl Loadenthal broke out of an 0-18 slump with a single up the middle that brought Josh Burrus and Van Pope in to score the M-Braves fourth and fifth runs.

Jeremy Frost hit his third homer of the year in the seventh to give the Barons a 9-5 lead.

The M-Braves got that run back in the eighth when Clint Sammons got a lead-off double and came in to score on a 4-3 groundout by Pope. Heading to the bottom of the eighth, Birmingham led 9-6.

Kelvin Villa only made it through two innings for the M-Braves. He gave up eight runs, three earned, on nine hits and fell to 3-5 on the year. Michael Nix surrendered only two hits through three shutout innings. Jose Ascanio gave up one run on two hits in two innings of work. Zach Schreiber threw a scoreless eighth.

Wes Whisler gave up three runs on six hits through five innings and improved to 4-6 on the season. Ryan Wing gave up two runs on one hit and three walks in on inning of work. Eduardo Sierra gave up one run on two hits in two innings. Fernando Hernandez threw a scoreless ninth to record his fourth save of the year.

The Braves have tomorrow off before hosting the Mobile BayBears in a five-game set at Trustmark Park. Game one is scheduled for Wednesday night at 7:05. The Braves are scheduled to send lefty Francisley Bueno (2-2, 3.00) to the hill in search of his third win of ’07. The BayBears are scheduled to counter with southpaw Greg Smith (2-2, 4.03) who’s also going for win number three.

Tomahawk Chops:

*Matt Esquivel belted his league-lead tying 14th homer of the year and drove in his league-leading 50th RBI … Esquivel went 3-5 in the game.
* Brandon Jones blasted his 11th homer of the year and drove in his 43rd and 44th RBIs of the year … Jones went 1-4.
* Clint Sammons went 3-4 with a double in the game.
* Carl Loadenthal broke out of an 0-18 slide with a two-RBI single in the sixth.

by
Nick Skinner
(Mississippi Braves.com)