Jumbo Shrimp Send Stripers to 5-4 Walk-Off Loss

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Gwinnett Stripers (43-54) held leads of 3-0 and 4-3 but saw the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp (44-53) rally with runs in the eighth and ninth to win it 5-4 on Wednesday night at 121 Financial Ballpark.

Decisive Plays: A two-run single by Joe Dunand and sacrifice fly by Hoy Park opened a 3-0 lead for the Stripers in the top of the first inning. Jacksonville rallied to tie it courtesy of a first-inning RBI double by Jacob Amaya and two-run home run by rehabbing Miami Marlins outfielder Avisail Garcia (2) in the third. In the seventh, Justin Dean doubled and scored on a two-out single by Luke Williams to put Gwinnett back in front 4-3. However, Garcia’s RBI single tied the game at 4-4 in the eighth, and Jordan Groshans’ Texas League RBI single in the bottom of the ninth won it 5-4 for Jacksonville.

Key Contributors: Williams (2-for-3, RBI) and Dunand (2-for-3, 2 RBI) combined for four of Gwinnett’s five hits on the night. Justus Sheffield started and yielded three runs on two hits while striking out five over 5.0 innings. For Jacksonville, Garcia went 2-for-4 with the homer and a game-high three RBIs.

Noteworthy: Vaughn Grissom drew a first-inning walk, extending his on-base streak to a team-best 21 games. Hoy Park went 0-for-3, snapping an eight-game hitting streak and five-game multi-hit streak. The Stripers are now 4-6 in games decided by walk-off this year.

Next Game (Thursday, July 27): Gwinnett at Jacksonville,7:05 p.m. ET at 121 Financial Ballpark. TBD for the Stripers vs. RHP Chi Chi Gonzalez (4-7, 7.04 ERA) for the Jumbo Shrimp. Broadcast: 6:50 p.m. ET on MyCountry993.com and Bally Live.

Next Home Game (Tuesday, August 1): Gwinnett vs. Indianapolis, 7:05 p.m. ET at Coolray Field. Broadcast: 6:50 p.m. ET on MyCountry993.com and Bally Live. It’s Family Value Tuesday at Coolray Field, with $2 Hot Dogs and $1 Desserts.