BayBears Take Home Opener from M-Braves
Roemer (1-0) tossed seven solid innings as he surrendered just two runs on six hits while punching out four. He started ominously, however, as the Braves (2-4) cracked three consecutive singles to start the game. Antoan Richardson touched home after the knock by Cory Harrilchak.
Mississippi punched home an unearned tally off Roemer in the fourth as Ernesto Mejia cracked a double and advanced to third on a bobble by Taylor Harbin. When Roemer induced a double play off the bat of Jordan Kreke, Mejia came home to put the Braves up by a pair.
In the bottom of the fourth, the BayBears (5-1) tagged a run off starter Randall Delgado (1-1). Evan Frey walked with no outs before Paul Goldschmidt laced a ball that appeared to go over the right-center field fence for a game-tying homer. After an umpires' conference, Goldschmidt's hit was ruled a double to drive home just one run.
Just one inning later, the BayBears would get what they needed to take over as Mark Hallberg reached on an error and scored on a bloop double off the bat of Frey. On that play, left fielder Marcus Lemon made an errant throw which also allowed A.J. Pollock to score the go-ahead run.
From there, the BayBears' pitching staff was nasty. Mississippi only collected one hit after the fourth. Bryan Woodall worked a perfect eighth before Bryan Shaw (S, 2) put together a 1-2-3 ninth for the win.
The BayBears battle the Braves in game two of their five-game set on Thursday night at 7:05 with Bryan Henry (1-0) getting the nod against southpaw Brett Oberholtzer (0-0). Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey will perform in pre and post-game festivities on a Thirsty Thursday with $1 Buds and Pepsi available between 6 and 8 p.m. For tickets, please call (251) 479-BEAR or log on to www.mobilebaybears.com. You can also follow the BayBears on Facebook and Twitter.