Balanced Attack Leads Rocket City To 6-4 Win

In front of an electric Friday night crowd of 6,652 at Toyota Field, the Rocket City Trash Pandas scored early and led from just about start to finish in a 6-4 victory over the Pensacola Blue Wahoos to even their six-game series at two games apiece.

Making his first start of the season, Trash Pandas lefty Brent Killiam issued a leadoff walk to Hayden Cantrelle. Anthony Mulrine erased the walk by making a perfect throw to second to catch Cantrelle trying to steal the base and get Killam through the first.

In the bottom of the frame, the Trash Pandas quickly got the lead off Pensacola starter Eury Perez, one of the Marlins top pitching prospects on his 19th birthday. Braxton Martinez reached with a two-out walk. Trey Cabbage followed with a towering two-run homer to deep right center to send the crowd to his feet with his second big fly of the young season.

Pensacola got the runs back in the second off Killam on an RBI double from former Trash Pandas infielder Ray-Patrick Didder and an RBI single from Cobie Fletcher-Vance to plate Didder.

Rocket City restored the lead in bottom of the second when Jose Gomez reached on an infield single and Anthony Mulrine lined a double to the gap in left-center to make it a 3-2 game.

Killam preserved the lead for the rest of his start by getting out of a big jam in the fourth. A walk and an error put the tying and go-ahead runs on second and third with nobody out. Killam then induced a soft fly out from Santiago Chavez before striking out Thomas Jones and Hayden Cantrelle to end the frame.

Over 4.0 innings, Killam allowed two runs on four hits with one walk and seven strikeouts in his first Double-A start. =

The Trash Pandas added on in the fourth when Aaron Whitefield came through with a two-out bases-loaded two-run single to give Rocket City a 5-2 lead.

Zach Linginfelter (W, 1-0) entered for the Trash Pandas in long relief and was sharp, giving up one runs on 2.2 innings in route to his first win of the season.

The teams traded runs in the sixth, with Didder scoring for the Blue Wahoos on an RBI ground out from Santiago Chavez and Rocket City answering on an RBI double from Ryan Aguilar.

Eric Torres was next out of the bullpen for the Trash Pandas and pitched 1.1 clean innings to earn a hold before Luis Ledo (S, 1) gave up a run in the ninth but was able to finish the win for his first save with Rocket City.

At the plate, Gomez was 2-for-4 with three runs scored while Whitefield and Cabbage each drove in a pair.

The Trash Pandas (5-2) and Blue Wahoos (2-5) continue their six-game set on Saturday night. First pitch at Toyota Field is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Josh Caray will be on the call for 103.9 FM THE UMP and 730 AM SportsRadio. The game will also be televised locally on WAAY-31.6, This TV.