Barons Best M-Braves Behind Sellout Crowd
The Birmingham Barons picked up a 6-3 win in their series opener against the Mississippi Braves Tuesday in front of a sellout crowd of 8,500 at Regions Field.
The Barons scored two early runs in the second inning on a Luis Sierra RBI single and a sacrifice fly by Jeremy Farrell against M-Braves starter Jason Hursh. An RBI double by Trayce Thompson an inning later scored Jared Mitchell, extending the lead to 3-0 after three innings.
After an RBI double by former Baron Seth Loman cut the lead to 3-2 in the fourth, Rangel Ravelo answered with an RBI single in the fifth extending the lead to 4-2. Ravelo, who finished 2-for-3 on the night, extended his hitting streak to 11 games.
The M-Braves closed to within a run again in the seventh on a leadoff home run by Kyle Kubitza against starter Mike Recchia (3-2, 2.97). However, the Barons put the game away in the bottom half of the inning on a two-run double by Kevan Smith, extending the lead to 6-3. Smith has 10 RBI in his first five games since the All-Star Break.
Recchia allowed three runs on five hits over 6.1 innings while picking up his third win of the season while relievers Kevin Vance and Nestor Molina tossed 2.2 combined scoreless innings in relief with Molina picking up his second save of the season.
With the win, the Barons improved to 3-2 in the second half and 32-43 on the season while the loss dropped the M-Braves to 2-3 in the second half and a 42-33 record overall. The Barons will return to America's oldest in-use ballpark tomorrow afternoon for the 19th Annual Rickwood Classic. RHP Nick McCully (3-5, 5.81) takes the hill for the Barons with first pitch scheduled for 12:30 PM CDT.