Neslony's Grand Slam Lifts Barons

Tyler Neslony hit a grand slam that broke open a close game to give the Birmingham Barons a 7-2 win over the Mississippi Braves Thursday night at Regions Field. The Barons slugged 12 hits and Barons pitching had 19 strikeouts in the win.

The Barons (44-36) scored first in the game on a Xavier Fernandez RBI single that scored Romy Gonzalez. The Barons took an early 1-0 lead.

In the third inning, Neslony hit his fifth home run of the season scoring Yolbert Sanchez, Jameson Fisher and Craig Dedelow. With the grand slam, the Barons took a 5-0 lead.

The Braves scored a run in the sixth inning on Braden Shewmake RBI single to cut the Barons lead to 5-1. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Ian Dawkins triples to left field and scored Neslony. Mitch Roman singled home Dawkins and the Barons opened up a 7-1 lead.

In the ninth, the Braves scored another run but fell short by a 7-2 score.

Emilio Vargas (5-1, 2.58) went five innings for the win. The righty only give up one hit and no runs while striking out 12 in the game. Vargas and been back and forth from the bullpen to a starter but had his best outing of his career with the 12 strikeouts and no runs.

Peter Tago pitched 2.0 innings only giving up two hits and a walk along with four strikeouts in the game.

Gonzalez, Fisher, and Dawkins had two hits in the win. Neslony went 1-3 with the home run, four RBI’s and two runs scored in the game.