BayBears' Six-Run Ninth Spoils Courtney Hawkins' Big Night

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Mobile BayBears used a six-run ninth inning rally to defeat the Birmingham Barons 11-5 and take the series on Wednesday night, despite Courtney Hawkins' three RBI night.
Major leaguer Miguel González started the game for Birmingham in his second rehab start and Mobile came out aggressively, scoring four runs in the first inning. The aggressiveness, however, did not come as a surprise to Gonzalez.

"It's happened a couple of times and it's nothing new," Gonzalez said of the aggressiveness. "Every guy that comes down to go through rehab, they all know that the other teams are going to be really aggressive no matter what. They know we're going to be around the zone and that's what happened tonight." 
The first four BayBears reached base and the four run inning was punctuated by Brendon Sanger 's two-run double, staking Mobile to a 4-0 lead. 
Nick Basto got the Barons on the board in the bottom half of the first inning with a sacrifice fly and that allowed Gonzalez to settle in. 
Gonzalez proceeded to retire eight in a row and keep the BayBears off the board for the rest of his start, while Hawkins drove in his first of the night, with an RBI double in the bottom of the third to continue the comeback. 
Tanner Banks relieved the right-hander in the top of the fifth, following an 87-pitch outing. Gonzalez finished the night tossing 4.1 innings, while surrendering seven hits and five earned runs, while walking none and striking out five and proclaimed himself ready to rejoin the White Sox rotation. 
"I feel great," Gonzalez said. "It's been a while, almost a month and I just want to go out there and be able to perform and help out the team to do what we do best and I'm ready." 
Josè Briceño greeted Banks with an RBI double to extend the lead to 5-2, but the lefty got out of the fifth, keeping the deficit at three. 
The score remained the same until the seventh, when the Barons struck three times, including a massive Hawkins home-run, his fifth of the season. The two-run shot over the scoreboard in left field, made the score 5-4 Mobile and Eddy Alvarez capped off the rally with an RBI single to tie the game at five. 
With the game still tied at five in the ninth, the BayBears strung together a six-run rally, with Briceno's three-run home run as the big blow in the inning. 
Greg Mahle tossed 1.2 scoreless innings out of the BayBears' bullpen to pick up his third victory of the season, while Banks took the loss, dropping to 0-3. 
The Barons will hit the road and travel to Biloxi for the first of five against the Shuckers tomorrow evening at 6:35 p.m. CST. Right-hander Jordan Stephens will take the ball for the Barons and fellow righty Luis Ortiz will be on the mound for Biloxi. Curt Bloom will bring you all the action starting with the Coca-Cola pregame show starting at 6:25 p.m. on 105.5 FM WERC and the iHeart Radio app.
For ticket information, game schedule, promotions calendar or for additional information about Regions Field, call (205) 988-3200, or visit www.barons.com, www.facebook.com/birminghambarons or on Twitter: @bhambarons.