Westbrook, Prince provide offense in opener at Montgomery

MONTGOMERY, ALA. - Following their second off day in the space of a week, the Jackson Generals jumped out to an early lead at Montgomery and did not look back, taking the opening game of their series 6-3 on Tuesday.

Jamie Westbrook took charge of the Generals' offense with his third home run in four games, and Justin Donatella won his second game in a row with a single earned run allowed over five innings. The win by the Generals kept them in within 1.5 games of first place in the Southern League's North Division with 19 games to go in the First Half.
The first inning set the standard for the Generals' offense, as a two-out sequence of walk-walk-single-single gave Jackson the early 2-0 lead on a Josh Prince 2-run knock. The visiting squad would score twice again in the third, as Westbrook came in on a Rudy Flores sacrifice fly and Prince drove home Luis Lara on another run-scoring single. Westbrook tacked on two more with a long ball in the fourth, leaving the yard for the eighth time in 2018 and fifth time in the month of May. The Generals' left fielder finished the game 2-for-4 with three runs scored, a pair of RBI and seven total bases, while Prince totaled three hits and three runs driven in. Both Prince and Westbrook are batting above .300 in the team's last ten games, totaling for 16 runs in that span.
Staked to an early lead, right-hander Justin Donatella earned his second straight win by working five innings with only one earned run allowed. The fourth-year pro allowed a solo home run to Brett Sullivan but remained otherwise unscathed while making his fourth straight start of five or more innings. The Generals bullpen induced a trio of groundball double plays, and left-hander Daniel Gibson, in his first 2018 appearance, earned the save with a ten-pitch ninth inning.  
TOP PERFORMERS - Generals
LF Jamie Westbrook - 2-4, 3 R, 2 RBI, BB, 3B, HR
DH Josh Prince - 3-4, 3 RBI, 2B
RHP Justin Donatella - 5.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 3 K
TOP PERFORMERS - Birmingham 
C Brett Sullivan - 2-3, 2 R, RBI, BB, 2B, HR
RHP Curtis Taylor - 3.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K
NEXT GENERALS GAME:
6:35pm CT Wednesday (5/30) vs. Montgomery Biscuits
Riverwalk Stadium - Montgomery, Ala.
RHP TBA (Generals) vs. LHP Génesis Cabrera (4-3, 3.71 ERA)
UPCOMING GENERALS HOMESTANDS:
June 3-7 vs. Tennessee Smokies
June 21-26 vs. Pensacola Blue Wahoos
…featuring Sarge's Carnival Weekend (June 22-23)!
Dial 731-988-5299 for tickets to see Jackson Generals Baseball, OR
log on to JacksonGeneralsBaseball.com!