Snell Masterful, Biscuits Score Late to Win

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - It took the Biscuits (19-24) almost eight innings to get their first run, but Montgomery delivered a memorable comeback victory Saturday night at Riverwalk beating the Tennessee Smokies 2-1.

The pregame hype was all about Blake Snell (3-0), the Washingtonian lefty who had gone 49 consecutive innings without allowing a run. However, it took the Smokies less than an inning to snap the unbelievable streak, with Willson Contreras coming through with a two-out RBI-single in the first that silenced the Montgomery crowd.

It was almost as if a rain cloud was hovering over Snell's head after that, an atmosphere of deflation permeating the stadium. But the southpaw rebounded in a big way, going six innings of three-hit ball, striking out a career-high 12 batters en route to a no-decision. Snell's dominant performance kept pace with the Smokies' Corey Black (1-2), who kept the Biscuits hitters off-balance all night.

And so it remained 1-0 Smokies until the eighth inning, when Patrick Leonard lead off with a hit by pitch. Biscuits catcher Justin O'Conner was up next, and took Tennessee reliever Michael Jensen-who had allowed just one run all year in 19.2 innings pitched-down the first baseline for a game-tying RBI-double. A Tommy Coyle sacrifice bunt moved O'Conner over to third before Hector Guevara chopped one to first in which Dan Vogelbach double-clutched allowing the Biscuits catcher to slide safely into home head-first. The Biscuits were up 2-1, despite just four hits, and would not look back with Bryce Stowell closing it out in the ninth for his third save of the season.

The Biscuits have now taken two out of three in the series, and will look to make it three out of four when Jared Mortensen (2-3) does battle with Ivan Pineyro (4-1) tomorrow at 5:35 PM.