Alex Williams’ First Win Of The Season Lifts Wahoos Above .500

May 21, 2026

The Pensacola Blue Wahoos eclipsed the .500 mark for the first time in 2026 thanks to a 6-5 victory over the Columbus Clingstones on Wednesday night.

An unconventional bottom of the second inning got the Wahoos offensive day going. Jay Beshears would start things off with a walk, followed by an Ian Lewis Jr. single and a Garret Forrester walk. With the bases loaded, Columbus starter Shay Schanaman (L, 2-3) would send a wild pitch to the backstop, allowing Beshears to score. Moments later, Schanaman would balk bringing home Lewis Jr. to make it 2-0 and advancing Forrester to third base. Gage Miller would bloop an RBI single into center soon after, bringing the score to 3-0. A 2-out Brendan Jones single would advance Miller to second and bring Cristian Hernández to the plate. Hernández would send a single into left field, scoring Miller and extending the Pensacola lead to 4-0.

The runs kept coming in the third, when Dillon Lewis would hit his team leading 10th home run of the season. Lewis is the first Wahoo in team history to hit 10 homers before the end of May. Jay Beshears would follow with his second walk of the game and eventually come around to score on a Garret Forrester run-scoring double to make the score 6-0.

Pensacola starter Alex Williams (W, 1-4) would work his best outing of the year, pitching his first 5.0 innings with nobody scoring. He would blink in the sixth when he’d hit Ambrioris Tavarez with a pitch and then immediately allow a 2-run home run to Patrick Clohisy, cutting the lead to 6-2. But Williams would maintain his composure and go on to retire the next 3 hitters to complete 6.0 innings and a quality start for his first time in 2026.

The Clingstones would continue to battle back, scoring on an RBI single from Tavarez off of Livan Reinoso in the 7th and a Jordan Groshans RBI triple off of Kade Bragg (H, 3) in the 8th to cut the lead to 6-4. Nigel Belgrave (S, 4) would come on for the save in the ninth, and Columbus would not make things easy for him. A leadoff walk to Cal Conley would come around to score on a 1-out single from Ambioris Tavarez. After a single and stolen base from Patrick Clohisy, the Clingstones had men on second and third trailing 6-5 with Lizandro Espinoza at the plate. He would proceed to rip a line drive right at the third baseman Ian Lewis Jr. who would make the catch and step on third to double off the runner and seal the victory.

With the win, the Wahoos would move to 21-20, bringing their record above .500 for the first time all season and keeping themselves in the hunt for the southern division crown.

The Blue Wahoos continue their series against the Clingstones on Thursday.

written by Charlie Hobert

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under FRONT FEATURE, Sports, TOP sports