Gladney and Veras Hit Home Runs to Lead Barons to a 6-4 Win at Rocket City Friday Night

By Jeff Allison

Wilfred Veras and DJ Gladney hit home runs to lead the Barons to a 6-4 win against the Rocket City Trash Pandas before 5,296 on Friday night at Toyota Field. The Barons pounded out 11 hits on the night, led by Adam Hackenberg going 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI in the win. The starting catcher has raised his average to .300 on the season.

Starting pitcher LHP Tyler Schweitzer (3-4, 4.47) gets the win going six innings, giving up seven hits, three earned runs, and no walks with four strikeouts in the game. Caleb Freeman pitched two innings in relief, going two innings, giving up three hits, one earned run, and one walk with a strikeout. Recent call-up Max Roberts gets his first save of the season, throwing a perfect inning with two strikeouts in the ninth.

The Barons scored first in the top of the first inning on back-to-back home runs by Veras and Gladney. Veras hit his 12th of the season, Gladney hit his second of the second, and the Baron took an early 2-0 lead. In the top of the second inning, Hackenberg doubled on a line drive to right field, and Jason Matthews hit an RBI single to center field, and the Barons took a 3-0 lead. The Barons scored again that inning on a throw error, and Matthews scored on the play, and the Barons led 4-0.

In the bottom of the third inning, Christian Moore hit a two-run home run to cut the Baron's lead in half at 4-2. In the top of the sixth inning, Michael Turner singled to right field, and Hackenberg followed with an RBI double to left field, scoring Turner. The Barons took a 5-2 lead. Hogan walked, Taishi Nakawake singled on a line drive to center field, and Hogan scored to give the Barons a 6-2 lead.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Moore homered again to cut the Barons' lead to 6-3. In the bottom of the eighth inning, a Sam Brown groundout scored Moore from third base, but the Barons still led 6-4 late in the game. Roberts came in the bottom of the ninth inning to close the win out for the Barons.

Gladney went 2-for-4 with a home run, an RBI, and a run scored, and Nakawake got his first two hits as a Baron along with an RBI single in the win. Next, the Barons will play game 5 of the six-game series with the Trash Pandas on Saturday at 6:30 pm at Toyota Field. LHP Noah Schultz (0-2, 1.64) will take the mound for the Barons.