Blue Wahoos Exhibition First Against Monterrey Ends In Unique Way 

A new piece in Blue Wahoos history occurred Tuesday night with an international exhibition complete with a festive pregame scene, two countries’ anthems, full player introductions, plus another unique element.

The game itself ended in a tie.

Pensacola’s Jake Thompson smashed a triple into the right-centerfield gap with one-out in the ninth inning, then scored on a balk, leading to a 1-1 finale against the Mexican League’s Monterrey Sultanes at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

“I haven’t tied a game in a long time,” said the Blue Wahoos second baseman Cody Morrisette. “I’ll take it (Tuesday). Both teams won. It was a good experience. Hopefully tomorrow we can go out there and play some better baseball and have some more fun.

“I thought our guys threw well. I thought we had good at-bats. We just couldn’t push much across (the plate), they couldn’t push much across and I thought we made plays when we had to and they made plays when they had to. So it was definitely a good game.”

The game was broadcast by Pensacola’s BLAB-TV back to a Monterrey, Mexico station with a reach of 6.5 million people in Mexico. The same broadcast will occur Wednesday with the teams will meet again to complete the series. The game Wednesday will end with a fireworks show and jersey swap between the teams.

It is believed the first time a Minor League Baseball team in this part of the country has played a Mexican League team in a preseason event.

The Blue Wahoos will open their Southern League season on Friday at home in a weekend series against the Mississippi Braves, the Atlanta Braves affiliate.

For this exhibition series, the home team has transformed into its alter identity as the Pensacola Pok-ta-Pok, a connection to an indigenous sport first played in 1650 B.C.

The players wore the Pok-ta-Pok uniforms, which made a debut last year as part of Minor League Baseball’s “Copa de la Diversion” initiative to grow the game in Latin America.

Prior to the game’s first pitch, the National Anthems of both nations were performed by on-field singers: Pensacola resident and Mexico native Amid Montelongo performed the Mexican anthem, while the American anthem was performed by Grace Resendez McCaffery, publisher of the La Costa Latino, a bilingual newspaper in its 19^th year of publication in Pensacola.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, a first-ever “Pinata Run” was featured with children chasing a fluffy costumed pinata runner in a different twist on the Blue Wahoos normal children’s chase.

“It’s exciting for the guys to be underneath the lights, have the fans here and they (Sultanes) have some good players over there," said Blue Wahoos manager Kevin Randel. "They had some guys with a lot of big league time. I would think they’re not as tuned up as we are in their spring season, but those guys can play, they can hit.

“Those guys are hanging around to maybe get another opportunity (in Major League Baseball) or hanging around because they love the game so much, so they have some good talent," Randel said.

The Sultanes have distinction as the oldest operated team in the Mexican League. They operate both a winter and summer team, one of the few in the Mexico to play year-round.

Sultanes manager Roberto Kelly played 14 seasons as an outfielder in Major League Baseball, including the first six years of his career with the New York Yankees.

The game began with solid pitching and stayed that way.

Pensacola loaded the bases with two out in the first inning, but Monterrey starter Tyler Viza struck out Thompson to end the threat.

In the fifth inning, the Sultanes took advantage of an infield error to get an RBI single by Zoilo Almonte to score Ramiro Pena with the game’s first run. Pensacola’s Zach McCambley relieved starter Kyle Tyler and ended further damage by getting a double-play that was started by Jacob Berry’s terrific grab of a hard grounder at third to end the inning.

It stayed that way until the ninth inning when Thompson delivered. Monterrey reliever Jorge Rondon struck out Sean Roby after the balk and got out Bennett Hostetler for the third out.

Both teams agreed in advance to not play extra innings, if such a circumstance occurred. It was played just like MLB spring training games that ended in ties.

WANT TO GO?

WHO: Monterrey Sultanes vs. Blue Wahoos

WHEN: Wednesday, 6:05 p.m.

WHERE: Blue Wahoos Stadium

TICKETS: One price ticket of $18 includes a hot dog, soda and soft drink.

PROMOTION: Post game fireworks, music to follow the game.

TICKETS: www.bluewahoos.com. Or at stadium box office from 10 a.m. through game time.

TELEVISION: BLAB-TV.

ONLINE AUDIO: www.bluewahoos.com or the MILB App.