Mississippi Tops Wahoos

June 29, 2015

The Mississippi Braves evened the series at two games apiece against the Pensacola Blue Wahoos with a 3-1 victory Sunday at Trustmark Park.

Mississippi went ahead, 2-1, in the sixth inning when center fielder Matt Lipka singled and stole second, his 11th of the year, and went to third on Pensacola catcher Cam Maron’s throwing error. Left fielder Kevin Ahrens then drove him in with a sacrifice fly to left field to tie the game, 1-1. The Braves added another run when shortstop Emerson Landoni tripled to right field to drive in third baseman Rio Ruiz, 2-1.

The Braves tacked on another run in the eighth inning to go up, 3-1, when Landoni hit a sacrifice fly to right field that scored Braves first baseman Matt Kennelly.

Pensacola scored first with a run in the second inning, 1-0, when center fielder Beau Amaral singled to drive in catcher Cam Maron, who hit a ground-rule double with two out.

Blue Wahoos right-hander Robert Stephenson lasted six innings, allowing two earned runs on five hits and three walks. He also struck out three batters to regain the Southern League lead with 89 on the season. His record fell to 4-7 with a 3.68 ERA.

Mississippi also relied on strong starting pitching with Tyrell Jenkins giving up three hits, five walks and one earned run in 5.1 innings of work, while striking out six.

Then three Braves relievers combined to shutout the Pensacola lineup allowing just three hits in 3.2 innings, while striking out four more batters. Tyler Jones pitched the ninth for his eighth save on the year.

Pensacola right fielder Jesse Winker went 1-4 and walked and is batting .467 (7-15) in the second half of the Southern League season. The Cincinnati Reds No. 2 prospect has had two hits in each of the first three games and one hit Sunday in the series against Mississippi. Winker has a homer, two RBIs, three runs scored and four walks against the Braves.

Blue Wahoos first baseman Marquez Smith was 2-4 with a double to extend his hit streak to six games and is batting .329 with four homers and 10 RBIs in June.

Both teams take the field at 7 p.m. Monday to decide the winner of the first five-game series in the second half of the Southern League season.


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