Wilkerson wins 11th game as Shuckers take opener over BayBears

MOBILE, AL - The Biloxi Shuckers began their final series of the regular season with a win on Thursday, beating the Mobile BayBears 5-2 at Hank Aaron Stadium. The Shuckers got two long home runs from Troy Stokes Jr. and Jake Gatewood , and another quality start from Aaron Wilkerson to beat their closest geographical rival.
Despite the win, Biloxi's playoff hopes were officially dashed when the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp came back to beat the Pensacola Blue Wahoos 5-2 later in the evening. By beating the BayBears, the Shuckers also eliminated Mobile from playoff contention and gave the Jumbo Shrimp the South Division's second half title.

Stokes got the Shuckers on the board in the second, hitting a two-run homer atop BayBear Mountain in left field to take a 2-0 lead. It marked the 19th home run for Stokes between Advanced-A Carolina and Biloxi this season, tying him for second in the organization with Triple-A Colorado Springs' Brett Phillips for most minor league home runs.
Angel Ortega drove in another run off Alex Klonowski (L, 5-8) later in the second inning with an RBI single, and Gatewood lined a home run to left-center in the third to extend the lead to 4-0.
Wilkerson (W, 11-4) finished his regular season on a high note, scattering two runs on five hits over 6.0 innings. The righty struck out six batters to give him 143 on the season, good for third in the Southern League. His 11 wins on the season tie him for second in Shuckers history with Tyler Wagner , behind only Jorge López 's 12 in the inaugural 2015 season.
Mobile's biggest threat came in the sixth inning when Taylor Ward beat out an infield single on a routine grounder to short and Jose Rojas hit his second double of the game to bring him home. But with the tying run at the plate, Wilkerson got Zach Gibbons to line out to second to end the threat.
Biloxi plated an unearned run in the seventh inning gave them another insurance run, and Taylor Williams retired all six batters he faced in the seventh and eighth. Lopez (S, 7) worked a scoreless ninth to earn his seventh save of the year.
The Southern League's "Best Hustler" Johnny Davis logged his league-leading 46^th stolen bases in the win.
The Shuckers continue their season-ending series at Mobile on Friday as Corbin Burnes  faces off against Luis Castillo. First pitch from Hank Aaron Stadium is at 7:05 pm, and live coverage begins at 6:45 pm on Cruisin' WGCM AM-1240/FM-100.9 and the Shuckers Radio Network. The game will also be available at biloxishuckers.com, MiLB.TV and TuneIn Radio.
ABOUT THE BILOXI SHUCKERS:
The Biloxi Shuckers are the Double-A Southern League Affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. The Shuckers play at MGM Park in Biloxi, Mississippi. For more information please visit biloxishuckers.com and follow us on Twitter @biloxishuckers and at facebook.com/biloxishuckers.com.