Rocket City Ends First Half With 2-1 Loss

Throughout Sunday’s series finale, the Rocket City Trash Pandas put runners on base against the Montgomery Biscuits. But they couldn’t capitalize when they needed it most, ultimately suffering a 2-1 loss in 11 innings to end the first half of the season.

Rocket City finished the first half third in the Southern League’s North Division with a 31-38 record.

After nearly opening the scoring in the first, the Biscuits broke through in the top of the second on Evan Edwards’ RBI single to plate Diego Infante, who began the inning with a single of his own. That would prove to be the only damage against Trash Pandas starter John Swanda in his season debut with the team.

Montgomery loaded the bases in the third on a pair of walks and a hit batter. But Swanda escaped without further damage, inducing a ground out from Diego Infante to end the inning and keep the deficit at one. In the fourth, Edwards singled, stole second, and advanced to third on a throwing error from Trash Pandas catcher Edgar Quero. The Rocket City catcher made up for his error, promptly picking Edwards off third just a few pitches later to end the inning.

Swanda ended a stellar start with a one, two, three inning in the fifth. In his first Double-A start since September 14, 2021, Swanda pitched five innings, allowing one run on five hits with two walks and four strikeouts.

However, the Trash Pandas couldn’t convert against Biscuits starter Sean Hunley. Their best chance against the starter came in the bottom of the third when Livan Soto doubled and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by Jose Gomez. David Calabrese then hit a ground ball to second. Trying to score on the play, Soto was thrown out at the plate by Biscuits second baseman Gionti Turner, getting the Biscuits through the inning with the lead intact.

Hunley pitched four innings, allowing just the one hit while striking out four. Jeff Belge was first out of the bullpen and immediately got into a jam. Tucker Flint walked, Sonny DiChiara doubled, and Soto took a free pass to load the bases with nobody out. Belge then struck out Gomez and Calabrese before Kyren Paris popped up to second to end the inning with the Trash Pandas still down one.

The battle of the bullpens continued from there. Kelvin Caceres, Alan Carter, and Nick Jones all fired scoreless innings for the Trash Pandas. Antonio Jimenez, Nelson Alvarez, and Enmanuel Mejia combined to throw three scoreless innings for Montgomery, preserving the 1-0 lead.

Robinson Pina fired a scoreless top of the ninth, giving the Trash Pandas an opportunity, they finally cashed in. Down to their last three outs, Rocket City again loaded the bases on singles from DiChiara and Gomez with a walk to Soto in between. Two hitters later, Kyren Paris lifted a sacrifice fly to right, plating pinch-runner Bryce Teodosio with the tying run to send the game into extra innings.

The Trash Pandas immediately got a break in the tenth, as Quero picked automatic runner Austin Shenton off second base for the first out. Pina (L, 1-1) got through the inning with a double play to keep the score tied. With the winning run on second, Biscuits reliever Justin Sterner struck out the side to send the game to the eleventh.

There, Logan Driscoll cracked a double to the gap in right-center, plating Tristan Peters with the go-ahead run. In the bottom half, Sterner (W, 2-1) struck out Teodosio, induced a ground out from Soto, and struck out Gomez to finish the win for the Biscuits.

Rocket City went 1-for-16 with men in scoring position, stranding 13 men on base. DiChiara, Soto, and Gomez all recorded two hits in the loss.

The Trash Pandas (31-38) begin the second half with a six-game series against the Birmingham Barons (25-44) starting on Wednesday night. First pitch at Regions Field is set for 7:05 p.m. Josh Caray will be on the call for 103.9 FM THE UMP and 730 AM SportsRadio.