Birmingham Accomplish Longest Win Streak of The Season Against Chattanooga

The Birmingham Barons came into Game 3 against the Chattanooga Lookouts with a little extra motivation as they could accomplish something that they hadn't all season: Win five games in a row. After a nine-inning bout, the Barons emerged victorious over the Lookouts by a score of 7-2 and secured wins in five consecutive games. Birmingham’s longest win streak before the final in Game 3 was four games, which they had achieved twice.

The Barons jumped on the Lookouts from both sides of the plate in the first inning. Barons starting RHP Cristian Mena in his 18th start of the year began sitting the opposition down in order with two strikeouts. In the bottom of the first, the Barons hottest hitter continued to show off his talents in an RBI single from Xavier Fernandez that scored Alsander Womack.

Birmingham kicked off the scoring in the game, however, the Lookouts scored their two runs in the top of the second to take the lead. Mena allowed an RBI double from Nicholas Northcut and an RBI triple from Jacob Hurtubise. The two runs were the only allowed in the ballgame for the right-hander as he collected his fifth win of the season.

The Barons may have lost the lead in the top of the second, but it only took one Ben Norman one swing of the bat to tie up the game in the bottom. Norman smacked his fifth home run of the year on a 3-1 count with no one on.

Norman tied the ballgame up and in the bottom of the third Bryan Ramos captured the lead back, and the Barons never gave it back.In the third, Ramos collected his first triple of the year and a batter later scored on a wild pitch.

The Barons protected their lead in the next couple of innings as they were the final of Mena on the mound. The Chicago White Sox No. 6 prospect finished his night with 6.1 IP with seven hits, two earned runs, two walks and struck out six. Mena handed the Barons his best efforts and the offense rewarded the youngster with a run in the bottom of the sixth and two in the seventh.

In the sixth, Alsander Womack hit a ball into the depths of the outfield to score Yoelqui Cespedes from third. Cespedes was in position to score from a double that he smacked and a sacrifice bunt from Terrell Tatum advanced him to third. The Barons carried a two-run lead into the seventh and doubled their lead with a two-RBI triple from Tatum. Tatum collected his first triple as a Baron, yet his fourth overall of the year.

To relieve Mena, RHP Tristan Stivors controlled the rest of the seventh inning and the eighth for his innings of work. Stivors finished the night allowing one hit with his three strikeouts, in his 1.1 IP. LHP Jonah Scolaro relieved the righty for the final out of the inning. Stivor and Scolaro combined to accomplish zeros on the scoreboard, and the Barons added one more insurance run in the bottom of the eighth.

In the eighth, Ramos smacked a high fly ball into center field to score Womack from third in the process.

With the insurance run in the eighth, Scolaro had added confidence to close out the game for Birmingham. The southpaw sat down Chattanooga in four batters for the Barons fifth consecutive win.

The Barons are currently playing some of the best baseball to date this season and look to keep it rolling as they are up 3-0 on the Lookouts. Birmingham will toss RHP Jonathan Cannon in Game 4 for his second start of the season.