PEARL, Miss. - Kolby Allard tossed a complete game one-hit shutout in game one, while Mike Soroka gave up one run in six innings pitched in game two as the Mississippi Braves swept a doubleheader from the Birmingham Barons 3-0 and 4-3 in 13 innings on Friday night.Game one belonged
PEARL, Miss. - Kolby Allard tossed a complete game one-hit shutout in game one, while Mike Soroka gave up one run in six innings pitched in game two as the Mississippi Braves swept a doubleheader from the Birmingham Barons 3-0 and 4-3 in 13 innings on Friday night.
Game one belonged to Allard, as he dueled with Barons' starter Jordan Guerrero , with both pitchers going the distance in the Braves victory.
Allard allowed a lone second inning rally by the Barons, as he walked Alfredo Gonzalez and allowed a single to Keon Barnum to begin the inning, but came back to get three straight outs to get out of the inning unscathed.
Meanwhile, in the bottom half of the second inning, Mississippi jumped out in front as Alex Jackson drove a Guerrero pitch out to deep left center field. Hunter Jones seemed to come up with a tremendous leaping catch at the wall, but the force of the wall jarred the ball loose and with Jones down, Jackson came all the way around to score on an inside-the-park home run.
Single runs in the fifth and sixth innings gave Allard some insurance as Tyler Neslony drove home one with an RBI single in the fifth and Joey Meneses smacked his eighth home run of the season, a sixth inning solo shot to extend the lead to 3-0.
That was more than enough for Allard, who allowed a hit and a walk, while striking out five in a complete game shutout. Allard improved to 8-11 with his first career shutout and bested Guerrero, who threw six innings, while allowing two earned runs in the 3-0 loss.
Meneses greeted Spencer Adams in game two with his second home run of the night, a two-run, second inning blast, to give the Braves an early 2-0 lead.
Spotted the 2-0 lead, Soroka worked around a third inning Jose Vinicio RBI triple, which at the time, cut the lead in half to 2-1.
But, a fourth inning Keith Curcio RBI single extended the lead back to two at 3-1, allowing Soroka to get through six innings with the two-run lead intact. The right-hander surrendered three hits and one run, while striking out seven.
Manager Luis Salazar called on Mauricio Cabrera to try and close out the game in the seventh, however the Barons were up to the task against the hard throwing right-hander.
Courtney Hawkins reached with a one-out walk and was driven home by Zack Collins ' booming double off the wall in right-center field. Trey Michalczewski then followed Collins up by doubling down the right field line to tie the game at three.
The teams would then battle back and forth for nearly six more innings, with both teams' bullpens shutting the opposing offense down. Jake Johansen , Jack Charleston and Robinson Leyer each threw 2.1 scoreless innings in relief.
In the 13th, the Braves walked off against Thaddius Lowry as Connor Joe reached with one out on a strikeout, wild pitch. Joe then reached third on a throwing error and came around to score on a broken bat single on the infield by Connor Lien .
Vinicio recorded two hits and an RBI to lead the Barons' seven-hit attack in game two, while the bullpen combined to give up two runs in 9.2 innings pitched.
The Barons and the Braves will be back at it tomorrow night at 6:00 p.m. CT as RHP Alec Hansen gets the ball for his second start for Birmingham, while his counterpart will be left-hander Tyler Pike for Mississippi. Curt Bloom will bring you all the action, starting with the Coca-Cola pregame show at 5:50 p.m. CT. The game can be heard on the iHeart Radio app and 105.5 WERC-FM.
For ticket information, game schedule or for additional information about Regions Field, call (205) 988-3200, or visit www.barons.com, www.facebook.com/birminghambarons or on Twitter: @bhambarons.
