Mejia's Homer Sacks BayBears

PEARL, Miss. - With the scored tied at 3-3 in the bottom of the eighth, Mike DeMark's first pitch of the night was cranked over the fence in left by Ernesto Mejia to hand the Mississippi Braves a 4-3 victory over the BayBears on Saturday night at Trustmark Park.

DeMark (0-2) kept the BayBears (39-34, 1-2) within one despite surrendering a double to Dan Nelson, following the Mejia blast. Nelson was stranded at third as the Braves (27-46, 2-1) asked Billy Bullock (S, 6) to maintain a one-run cushion in the ninth which he did.

Marc Krauss reached safely to start the ninth with an infield single. He advanced to second when Ollie Linton coaxed a two-out walk but neither man moved any further as A.J. Pollock struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch to end the contest.

Wes Roemer started for the BayBears and didn't allow a hit until the fourth when Tyler Pastornicky cracked a triple and scored on a sac fly from Mejia. Roemer's counterpart, Arodys Vizcaino fanned eight in the first five innings but coughed up a three-spot in the sixth as the BayBears grabbed the lead.

Pollock singled and stole second before scoring on a ground-rule double to left off the bat of Taylor Harbin. A couple of walks and outs later, Ed Easley smacked a 3-1 fastball up the middle with the bases loaded to knock home Harbin and Ryan Wheeler, putting the BayBears up by a pair.

Roemer gave two of the runs right back in the bottom of the sixth as the Braves tied the game with RBI from Nelson and Cory Harrilchak. Richard Sullivan and Rowdy Hardy (2-4) didn't give allow a BayBear to reach base over 2.1 innings after replacing Vizcaino with two outs in the top of the sixth.

The BayBears take on the M-Braves in game four of their five-game set on Sunday night at 5:05. Left-hander Patrick Corbin (6-3) gets the start against fellow lefty Brett Oberholtzer (3-8). The BayBears return home on Tuesday, June 28 to battle the Montgomery Biscuits at 7:05 p.m. For tickets, which start at $5 for kids and $7 for adults, please call (251) 479-BEAR or visit www.mobilebaybears.com.