M-Braves Nip Biscuits, 2-1, Win Double-A South
PEARL, Mis. – The Biscuits (2-3) kept it close, but ultimately fell short in a tough 2-1 loss to the Mississippi Braves (3-2) in Game 5 of the 2021 Double-A South Championship Series on Sunday night at Trustmark Park. The M-Braves won the series, three games to two, and are
PEARL, Mis. – The Biscuits (2-3) kept it close, but ultimately fell short in a tough 2-1 loss to the Mississippi Braves (3-2) in Game 5 of the 2021 Double-A South Championship Series on Sunday night at Trustmark Park. The M-Braves won the series, three games to two, and are champions for the first time since 2008.
Alan Rangel (1-0) made his first postseason for the M-Braves, and the right-hander allowed a one-out walk single to Jonathan Aranda and then a walk to Ford Proctor, but proceeded to strike out Ruben Cardenas and Cal Stevenson—both swinging—to end the frame. Adrian De Horta (1-1) started his second game of the series on the other side for the Biscuits and worked a one-two-three bottom of the first, notching a strikeout.
Rangel struck out Niko Hulsizer to begin the second inning, and then Jim Haley got on with an infield single and stole second. Chris Betts flew out to deep left in the next at-bat, and Haley tagged and ran to third. Mississippi left fielder Trey Harris’ throw was offline and got a piece of Haley on the toss, and the error allowed the shortstop to score the game’s first run and make it 1-0 Biscuits early.
The M-Braves would respond promptly in the bottom of the second. Shea Langeliers drew a walk, and then took second on a De Horta wild pitch. C.J. Alexander then ripped an RBI-double to right to make it a 1-1 game, but De Horta settled down and left the third baseman stranded on third to end the inning.
Xavier Edwards singled to center to begin the fourth, but then Rangel struck out the side. De Horta allowed a two-out single to Harris in the bottom of the fourth, but struck out two more and kept it a 1-1 contest. The Biscuits went three-and-out against Rangel in the top of the fourth. De Horta then faced the minimum in the bottom of the fourth, as Cardenas gunned down Alexander trying to stretch a single into a double at second.
The Biscuits went three-and-out against Rangel again in the top of the fifth, and then after De Horta struck out the first two batters of the bottom of the fifth, Greyson Jenista stepped up and clubbed a solo home run to right-center to make it 2-1 Mississippi. Rangel finished the game retiring the last 12 Biscuit batters to come to the plate, working another clean top of the sixth.
Cristofer Ogando came on for the Biscuits and spun a one-two-three bottom of the sixth, striking out Langeliers looking. Brandon White entered for Rangel and struck out two in a one-two-three top of the seventh. Ogando then struck out two more in a clean bottom of the seventh.
Jake Higginbotham worked a one-two-three top of the eighth, and then Justin Sterner did the same in the bottom of eighth. Nolan Kingham came on in the ninth and retired the first two batters before allowing a two-out single to Cardenas whose base hit snapped a streak of 20-consecutive batters retired by Mississippi pitching. Cardenas then moved to second on a Langeliers passed ball, but Cal Stevenson popped out to Alexander in foul territory in front of the M-Braves dugout to end the Biscuits season.
The Biscuits will be back next season, and will start the new campaign on April 8, 2022 at Mississippi.