M-Braves Top Shuckers 8-5 for Fourth Straight Win

Photo by Mike Krebs

BILOXI, MS - The Mississippi Braves (33-42) won their fourth straight game with an 8-5 win over the Biloxi Shuckers (36-37) in front of a crowd of 6,098 on Sunday night at MGM Park.

The M-Braves won their first series since the last week in May, taking four of six against the Shuckers.

Cade Bunnell had his best performance for the M-Braves, going 3-for-5 with a home run, a triple and a double to finish a single shy of the cycle from the leadoff spot.

The M-Braves scored a run in each of the first three innings.

After setting a club-record with seven RBI last night, Drew Lugbauer laced a double into the right-field corner to score Justin Dean and make it 1-0 in the first. Dean singled and stole a base in the inning.

Lugbauer went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI for his 16th multi-hit game this season. Lugbauer is tied for second in the Southern League with 16 home runs and leads the team with 40 RBI.

After a Jakson Reetz two-run homer for Biloxi in the bottom of the first, Hendrik Clementina lofted a 392-foot solo home run out to left center in the second to tie the game 2-2.

Bunnell blasted a solo shot in the third to put the M-Braves back in front 3-2. The homer was Bunnell’s first in Double-A in his seventh game for the M-Braves. The infielder was promoted from High-A Rome to Mississippi on May 12 for two games and then again on June 28.

In the fifth, Riley Delgado led off with a double to left field. Bunnell then lasered an RBI triple to the wall in center field that scored Delgado. CJ Alexander brought in Bunnell with a sacrifice fly for his 39th RBI of the season. The M-Braves extended the lead to 5-2.

RHP Alan Rangel bounced back from a tough start on Wednesday, allowing two runs over five innings in his third win. The right-hander is currently ranked as Atlanta’s No. 22 prospect.

Jakson Reetz homered again, his fourth of the series, on a solo shot to left field to cut the score to 5-3.

In the ninth, the M-Braves added three insurance runs off four hits. Delgado led off the inning with a single. Bunnell doubled to straightaway center field to put two runners in scoring position. Dean sent a two-run single down the right-field line, and Andrew Moritz scored Alexander with a base hit to make it 8-3 M-Braves.

Dean followed up a three-hit game by going 2-for-5 with two RBI and a stolen base. Alexander and Delgado each finished with two hits, making it six multi-hit performances for the M-Braves.

Those runs proved critical as the M-Braves held off two Biloxi runs in the final frame to win the game and the series 8-5.

The M-Braves return home on Monday for a six-game home series against the Pensacola Blue Wahoos (Double-A Affiliate, Miami Marlins), the start of a 12-game homestand from July 4-17.

Come celebrate Independence Day with the Braves and the city of Pearl with a postgame fireworks extravaganza presented by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi!

Get your tickets HERE.