Jackson, Tenn. - The Jackson Generals, the Double-A affiliate of Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks, rallied to win their fifth consecutive game on Sunday night, taking down the Mobile BayBears 3-2 in walk-off fashion at The Ballpark at Jackson.
Jackson, Tenn. - The Jackson Generals, the Double-A affiliate of Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks, rallied to win their fifth consecutive game on Sunday night, taking down the Mobile BayBears 3-2 in walk-off fashion at The Ballpark at Jackson.
The Generals (65-47) swept the BayBears (41-71) for the second time this season, winning in their last at-bat for the ninth time in 2019.
Early on, Mobile right-hander Zack Kelly made the Jackson offense mute, striking out the first four batters of the game en route to a career-high ten punchouts in six shutout frames. He stranded a double by Drew Ellis in the second inning and a lead-off single by Daulton Varsho in the fourth, allowing no other Generals to reach base in a walk-free performance. In relief, however, Dario Beltre walked Seth Beer with one out in the seventh inning, and Jeffrey Baez made Beltre pay for it, lining a two-out, two-run homer off the top of the 24-foot wall in left field to tie the game at 2-2.
The Generals did no damage in the eighth inning, but the ninth was different. Facing reliever Austin Warren (1-1, 0.00 ERA), Varsho hit a popup to left field that Mobile outfielder Bo Way dropped, allowing Varsho to reach base safely as the potential winning run. Warren walked Ramon Hernandez and Beer thereafter to load the bases for Ellis. The Generals' third baseman whiffed twice before connecting with Warren's third pitch, lacing a run-scoring single past shortstop Roberto Baldoquin against a drawn-in Mobile infield to win the game. The walk-off knock was the second lead-taking hit for Ellis in eight days, following his top-of-the-ninth two-run homer in a 3-1 win at Biloxi on July 28. He finished with the Generals' only multi-hit game. Jackson also won for the second time in a row in spite of collecting fewer hits (four) than Mobile (eight).
Josh Green started for the Generals and worked five and one-third innings, ceding a pair of runs to Mobile on eight hits. Green got outstanding play from his defense, led by the keystone combination of Galli Cribbs Jr. and Camden Duzenack. Both middle infielders recorded four assists, and Cribbs made a routine of the spectacular with plays far to his glove side, deep in the hole at shortstop, and from the seat of his pants in the outfield grass. Duzenack helped Varsho catch a runner trying to steal at second base with a tag-out and played the pivot man on a double-play in the third inning that helped quell a two-on, no-outs threat from Mobile.
After coaxing ten groundball outs from the BayBears, Green departed with the bases loaded in the sixth and the Generals trailing, 2-0. Left-hander Miguel Aguilar, pitching for the second night in a row, threw just two pitches in relief, inducing a grounder to third base that gave Ellis the chance to tag the base and begin a critical inning-ending double play to escape the jam. Matt Brill, Damien Magnifico, and West Tunnell (1-0, 1.50 ERA) each posted zeroes in single innings of work, with Magnifico impressing by striking out three men for the second night in a row. The Generals held Mobile to just eight runs over five games.
