Birmingham Bats Explode in 9–5 Win Over Rocket City

By Jeff Allison

MADISON, Alabama -- The Birmingham Barons flexed the offense as they rolled past the Rocket City Trash Pandas 9-5 before 3,673 at Toyota Field on Tuesday night. The Barons lost five of the six home games against Chattanooga last week and earned their first win in this six-game series against Rocket City.

Left-handed starting pitcher Christian Oppor, who is #8 in the MLB White Sox pipeline, pitched 2.0 innings, giving up two hits, four earned runs, six walks, and one strikeout. Mark McLaughlin (1-0, 4.26) gets the win, going 3.0 innings, giving up only one hit and a walk. Jairo Iriarte pitched 2.0 innings, giving up only one hit with three strikeouts. Nick Altermatt pitched 1.0 innings, giving up 1.0 inning giving up a walk with a strikeout. Cullman High pitcher Jacob Heatherly pitched 0.2 innings, giving up one earned run, four walks, and two strikeouts. Riley Gowens got his first save of the season, pitching 0.1 innings with a strikeout.

The Barons scored in the top of the first inning, when Rikuu Nishida walked, stole second, and scored on a Braden Montgomery RBI double, and the Barons (4-6) led 1-0. Caden Connor followed with a double to right field, scoring Montgomery, and the Barons led 2-0. Jeral Perez homered to center field, scoring Connor, and the Barons led 4-0.

Rocket City (4-6) scored in the bottom of the first inning on a Raidi Rodriguez walk with the bases loaded, followed by a Harold Coll walk, and the Trash Pandas trimmed the Barons lead to 4-2.

In the top of the second inning, Nishida doubled with one out, and Montgomery doubled to left field, scoring Nishida, and the Barons led 5-2. In the bottom of the second inning, Wade Meckler hits a home run to right field, and the Barons lead was 5-3. Mattew Lugo sacrifice fly, scored Gustavo Campero, and the Barons led 5-4.

In the top of the fourth inning, Nishida singled on an infield bunt, and Montgomery singled to put runners on the corners. Connor grounded out, scoring Nishida, and the Barons led 6-4. Samuel Zavala singled on a ground ball to the shortstop, scoring Montgomery, and the Barons led 7-4.

In the top of the sixth inning, Nishida walked, stole second, and scored on a Connor RBI single to center field. The Barons led 8-4.

In the top of the seventh inning, Andy Weber hit his first home run of the season on a deep fly ball over the right field fence, and the Barons led 9-4. In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Trash Pandas scored on a bases-loaded walk by Raudi Radriguez, scoring Mac McCroskey.

Nishida had a big day at the plate for Birmingham as he went 2-for-2 with two walks, four runs scored, and two stolen bases. Montgomery had three hits, with two RBI and two runs scored. Connor had two hits, three RBI, and a run scored.