PEARL, MS -- The Mississippi Braves (4-12, 38-48) continued its struggles to start the second-half season, dropping the series opener to the Jackson Generals (8-9, 45-42) by a score of 5-0 at Trustmark Park Sunday.Tyler Pike (0-4) got the start for Mississippi and looked good through four innings, working around baserunners
PEARL, MS -- The Mississippi Braves (4-12, 38-48) continued its struggles to start the second-half season, dropping the series opener to the Jackson Generals (8-9, 45-42) by a score of 5-0 at Trustmark Park Sunday.
Tyler Pike (0-4) got the start for Mississippi and looked good through four innings, working around baserunners with nine strikeouts, but ran into trouble in the fifth. After allowing a leadoff walk to Generals pitcher Brad Keller, Pike was touched for four runs in the inning on just two hits.
A catcher's interference on Jonathan Morales plated the first run of the game, but Jackson tacked on three more with an RBI groundout by Kevin Medrano and a two-RBI single by Dawel Lugo. Pike recorded his 10th strikeout of the afternoon to get out of the inning, but the damage was done.
In the seventh, Jackson added one more run off reliever Danny Reynolds with two outs. This time it was an RBI-single by Victor Reyes to score Medrano and chase Reynolds from the game. The M-Braves used Jessie Biddle and Philip Pfiefer to get through the last two innings and a third scoreless.
In the first inning, Mississippi had it's best chance to score with the bases loaded and two outs against Jackson starter Brad Keller (6-6). Connor Lien sent a blast to straight-away center field, but just missed a grand slam by a few feet as Evan Marzilli made a catch at the wall to end the threat. Mississippi could never find the offense the rest of the afternoon and took their 12th loss in the second-half.
Game two of the four game series is set for 7:00 PM Monday at Trustmark Park.
Jackson: 5-7-0
Mississippi: 0-4-1
WP: Keller
LP: Pike
Attn: 2896
Time: 2:45
