Biscuits Halt Shuckers, 6-4

BILOXI, Mis. – The Biscuits (41-34) scored their runs early and often and held on to a 6-4 win over the Biloxi Shuckers (29-48) on Saturday night at MGM Park.

Noah Zavolas (3-6) made his 15th start of the season for the Shuckers, and the former Harvard Crimson righty retired the first batter of the game on an Xavier Edwards flyout to left before serving up a solo homer to Niko Hulsizer on a 3-0 pitch in the next at-bat. The home run was Hulsizer’s fifth as a Biscuit, as well as his 16th RBI in 16 games as a member of the Butter and Blue, which put Montgomery up 1-0 early.

Jack Laboksy made his third start for the Biscuits and set the Shuckers down in order in the bottom of the first, and got a terrific diving catch from Hulsizer out in right to rob Brice Turang of a base hit.

The Biscuits would add to their lead in the top of the second with a pair of RBI-singles from Edwards and Hulsizer to make it a 3-0 game. Ruben Cardenas then tacked on a sac fly, and Joey Roach’s RBI-double down the right field line made it a 5-0 affair and chased Zavolas from the game.

The Shuckers would pull a couple of runs back against Labosky in the bottom of the second on a Luis Castro RBI-single and a Gabriel Garcia RBI-groundout to make it 5-2. An inning later, Turang hit the video board in right-center with a solo homer to make it a 5-3 game. Ruben Cardenas’ RBI-triple in the top of the fourth increased the Biscuits’ lead to 6-3.

Jordan Brink (4-0) came on for Labosky and worked a scoreless fifth to keep it a 6-3 contest. Brink then struck out the side in the bottom of the sixth after allowing a single to David Fry, and worked a scoreless seventh as well.

Joel Peguero came on for Brink and pitched a scoreless eighth, and Hulsizer notched his fourth hit—his second double of the game. The Shuckers scored one in the bottom of the ninth, but Peguero eventually closed things out for his second save, stranding runners at second and third.

The Biscuits will aim to make it back-to-back victories against Shuckers in Sunday night’s series finale when Jayden Murray (0-1) goes up against Carlos Luna (1-0) at 5:05 PM CT.

The Biscuits will return to Riverwalk Stadium for a seven-game series against the Tennessee Smokies starting on a Golden Biscuits Tuesday, August 3 at 6:35 PM CT. The rest of the first series will include a Military Wednesday presented by WOW! on Wednesday, August 4; National IPA Day with a T-Shirt Giveaway on Thursday, August 5; 15th Anniversary of Talladega Nights featuring a NASCAR Hat Giveaway presented by U.S. Air Force on Friday, August 6; Tide & Tiger Night presented by I-92 WLWI & 95.1 The Fox with MAX Fireworks on Saturday, August 7; and Lil' Crumbs Kids Club presented by Go Fish Alabama & Bark in the Park on Sunday, August 8.