Castillo and Crochet Shine in 8-3 Loss Against Biloxi

The Birmingham Barons dropped their final home game of the year in an 8-3 loss to the Biloxi Shuckers. In the Game 6 loss, the Barons collected nine hits and used a total of six pitchers. From the plate, Moises Castillo carried the way as he finished 4-4 with a run, two doubles and one RBI. From the mound, LHP Garrett Crochet was flawless in his lone inning of work, striking out all three batters he faced.

The Shuckers got the scoring started early as they scored four runs in the first two innings of the ballgame. Biloxi kicked off the game by hitting a solo home run off of the first pitch of the ballgame. The Shuckers padded their one run lead in the second with three more runs. Barons RHP Matt Thompson was tagged with the four earned runs.

The Barons would not help out the starter until the bottom of the third inning on a single by Alsander Womack. Womack smacked a single into left field to score Castillo and get the Barons on the board.

Thompson’s day finished before the end of the top half of the fourth. The right-hander ended his 3.2 innings pitched with three hits, four earned runs, five walks, one home run and six strikeouts. RHP Jared Kelley was the Barons first call to the bullpen to finish off the fourth.

The Barons continued the scoring in the fourth inning with adding another run to their total. Castillo corralled his lone RBI of the game on a soft single that scored Tim Elko. Birmingham was able to cut the deficit in half, however, the Shuckers in the fifth added two more to erase the Barons efforts.

Kelley continued into the fifth but struggled after a quick first out. The right-hander found himself with the bases loaded just three batters after the first out of the inning. Kelley then walked the batter with the bases occupied for the Shuckers first run of the inning. Jared was relieved after the run to LHP Gil Luna. Kelley’s final stat line was 0.2 IP with one hit, two runs, one earned run and three walks.

Luna continued his appearance through the sixth inning as he kept the Shuckers off the board. Luna’s night ended at the final out of the sixth, the southpaw finished with zero hits, zero runs, one walk and two strikeouts.

The Barons in the sixth scored their final run of the night off of a Wilfred Veras ground out that scored Colson Montgomery.

In the seventh, Crochet took the bump for his 1.0 IP in which he was dominant in striking out all three batters he faced. The Barons offense could not muster anything in the seventh, or the rest of the game.

The Shuckers on the other hand found two more runs to bring their total to eight runs. Birmingham used two more pitchers on the night in LHP Fraser Ellard and RHP Chase Plymell. Ellard got the eighth as his lone inning of work in which he finished with two hits, one earned run and one strikeout. Plymell closed out the game with his sole inning of work allowing two hits, one earned run and one home run to go with one strikeout.

Birmingham now turns their efforts to its final series of the 2023 season against the Chattanooga Lookouts. The series will kick off with Game 1 on Tuesday, September 10.