Biscuits Split Series Opener with Shuckers

BILOXI, Mis. – The Biscuits (39-31) had a dramatic win and a hard-fought loss in their opening night of an epic eight-game series against the Biloxi Shuckers (26-46) on Tuesday night at MGM Park.

The Biscuits and Shuckers picked things up in the bottom of the second of a suspended game with Ruben Cardenas stationed on third. Ford Proctor was able to knock in the center fielder with an RBI-groundout on the first swing of the resumption to make it a 3-1 game in favor of the Shuckers, who had a 3-0 lead when the game was originally suspended on July 18.

Jack Labosky took over in the third after Faustino Carrera’s two innings of work on July 18, and the righty worked a one-two-three top of the third to begin the night. An inning later, the Biscuits loaded the bases against Leo Crawford and Xavier Edwards’ sac fly made it a 3-2 game at the end of three.

Cam Devanney singled off Labosky to begin the fifth, and then moved to third on a sac bunt by Ryan Aguilar and a groundout before Mitch Longo launched a two-out, two-run homer to right to make it 5-2 Shuckers.

Matt Hardy (1-3) came on in the bottom of the seventh to try to close things out for the Shuckers, but the right-hander served up a solo home run to Cardenas on his first pitch to make it 5-3. Proctor then singled and Niko Hulsizer doubled him in to make it 5-4 in the next at-bat.

Joey Roach then flew out to right, moving Hulsizer to third, and after Seaver Whalen was hit by a pitch, Jake Palomaki’s squeeze bunt scored Hulsizer with the tying run. With Whalen on second, Haley popped up to third but Gabriel Garcia dropped the ball coming down the line, allowing Whalen to score, giving the Biscuits an unusual 6-5 walk-off win in a park other than Riverwalk Stadium.

In the second seven-inning game, Carlos Luna (1-0) made his Double-A debut for the Shuckers and the right-hander retired the Biscuits in order in the top of the first. Jayden Murray (0-1) was making his second Double-A start on the other side for the Biscuits, and the right-hander worked a scoreless bottom of the first to begin his evening.

In the bottom of the second, the Shuckers got a couple of runners on for Cam Devanney who stroked a two-run double into the right-center field alley to put the Shuckers in front early, 2-0. In the bottom of the third, Chad Spanberger doubled that lead with a two-run double of his own into the right-center field gap to make it 4-0 Shuckers.

The Biscuits would pull a run back in the top of the fourth against Luna courtesy of an RBI-double down the left field line by Cardenas to make it 4-1. Luna ended up allowing just the lone run over five innings, striking out six.

The Biscuits loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the sixth, but could scratch across only one run on a Chris Betts RBI-groundout to make it a 4-2 contest. Brice Turang added an RBI-double for the Shuckers to make it 5-2 in the sixth. The Biscuits made it interesting in the top of the seventh thanks to Cardenas’ two-run single, but Cal Stevenson struck out to end the game as Montgomery lost 5-4.

The Biscuits will try to bounce back against the Shuckers on Wednesday when Easton McGee (1-0) goes up against Lucas Erceg (0-2) at 6:35 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.