Alexander homers and drives in six as M-Braves rout Lookouts Friday night
CHATTANOOGA, TN - CJ Alexander homered twice, and drove in six, as the Mississippi Braves trounced the Chattanooga Lookouts 9-2 at AT&T Field on Friday night. The six RBI's were the first in a game for an M-Brave since 2013, when Jaime Pedroza drove in six on August 2, 2013,
CHATTANOOGA, TN *- *CJ Alexander homered twice, and drove in six, as the Mississippi Braves trounced the Chattanooga Lookouts 9-2 at AT&T Field on Friday night. The six RBI's were the first in a game for an M-Brave since 2013, when Jaime Pedroza drove in six on August 2, 2013, against Huntsville. The multi-homer game was Alexander's third as an M-Brave.
Alexader's big night will take some of the shine away from Freddy Tarnok's (W, 1-0) best start of 2022. The 24-year-old right-hander tossed five shutout innings on three hits with two walks and three strikeouts. His sixth start proved to be the one to earn him his first win, retiring nine of the first ten batters that he faced.
After a scoreless first three innings, the M-Braves (14-17) handed Tarnok a 3-0 lead. Luke Waddell had another big night and singled for the second-straight at-bat in the fourth. Hendrik Clementina started a string of four-straight hits, including an RBI single by Alexander, and a two-run single by Riley Delgado. Waddell was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and upped his team-best hitting streak to 11 games.
Alexander came back to the plate in the fifth inning after Waddell drew a walk, and Drew Lugbauer hit a double to right. Alexander hit a 423-foot bomb to the right-center, handing Mississippi a 6-0 lead.
Coleman Huntley III *took over for Tarnok in the sixth and tossed a scoreless frame, before giving up a two-run homer to Michael Siani in the seventh, trimming the Braves' lead to 6-2. *Odalvi Javier had a 1-2-3 eighth inning on the mound.
*Michael Harris II *walked in his second and third at-bats to extend his on-base streak to the first 31 games, then singled in the sixth and launched a sacrifice fly to right in the eighth. Harris II has hit in 17 of 18 games and was 1-for-2 officially on Friday.
Alexander came back to the plate in the ninth inning with one out and hit a 419-foot, two-run blast to right-center pushing the advantage up to 9-2.
Victor Vodnik dealt a scoreless ninth to finish off the win. Vodnik has logged six scoreless outings on three hits to begin his 2022 campaign.
Lugbauer, Waddell, Alexander, and Clementina recorded multi-hit games, as the M-Braves out-hit the Lookouts 13-6 on Friday night. The M-Braves have won four of their last five games, and are 7-4 in the month of May. They will look for a second series win on Saturday, leading in the current set, 3-1.
The multi-homer game for Alexander was Mississippi's second this season, joining Harris II, who had two long balls on May 2 at Montgomery
The fifth game of the six-game road series is on Saturday at AT&T Field. RHP Darius Vines (2-1, 4.60) makes the start for Mississippi against LHP Andrew Abbott (0-0, --) for Chattanooga. The first pitch is at 6:15 pm CT, with coverage starting at 6:00 pm CT on 103.9 WYAB, TuneIn Radio, First Pitch App, and MiLB.tv.