Dean, Nay homer as Jays blank Braves

 

BLUEFIELD - The Bluefield Blue Jays defeated the Danville Braves 5-0 on Tuesday night at Bowen Field.

 

With the win, the first-place Jays improved to 25-13. The Braves dropped to 19-17 on the season.

 

The Braves threatened to score in the top of the fourth inning with the bases loaded and no outs, but Bluefield starting pitcher Chase DeJong worked out of the jam by striking out Blake Brown and Joseph Odom and getting Jackson Laumann to ground out to shortstop.

 

Matt Dean broke the scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth inning with a solo home run to left field off of Danville starter Andrew Waszak.

 

Nico Taylor brought DJ Davis in to score with a double in the bottom of the sixth inning to give Bluefield a 2-0 lead.

 

Later in the inning, Mitch Nay hit a line drive down the right field line that rolled out of reach of Braves outfielder Hector Garcia and into the corner. Garcia held up his hands to signal that the ball was out of play or stuck in the padding under the wall.

 

Nay, along with the two runners on base, continued around the bases and touched home plate. The umpires conferred and ruled that the ball was still in play, giving Mitch Nay a three-run inside-the-park home run.

 

DeJong struck out seven in his four innings of work and allowed five hits. Alvido Jimenez (W, 1-0) pitched two innings of relief and struck out five Braves and gave up one hit.

 

Phil Kish made his debut with Bluefield and pitched two hitless innings with one stirikeout. Francisco Gracesqui pitched a 1-2-3 top of the ninth inning to finish the game.

 

Andrew Waszak was charged with the loss and dropped to 1-3 on the season, despite a 1.01 ERA. Matt Kimbrel pitched one inning and gave up four runs on three hits and a walk. Jordan Sechler pitched the final two innings and gave up two hits and one walk while striking out four Blue Jays.

 

Dean lifted his season batting average to .278 with his two-hit game. He is hitting .357 over his last ten games with two home runs and four RBI.

 

Nay was credited with his third home run of the season and raised his season RBI count to 23, which is the second-highest on the club behind Dawel Lugo, who leads the Appalachian League with 27.

 

Braves designated hitter Johan Camargo accounted for two of Danville's six hits.

 

Bluefield and Danville will finish the three-game stand and the nine-game regular-season series on Wednesday night. Zak Wasilewski (3-1, 3.95 ERA) will start on the mound for the Jays. Jared Dettmann (1-2, 2.61 ERA) gets the call for the Braves.