Big hit elusive as 'Cakes fall to Express

Tommy Joseph homered and added an RBI single to lead the Round Rock Express past the New Orleans Baby Cakes, 4-2 on Wednesday afternoon.
Joseph started the scoring with his fourth home run of the season leading off the second. After the Baby Cakes answered in the bottom of the frame on an RBI single by Austin Dean, the Express strung together three straight two-out singles against Adam Conley, capped by Joseph's run-scoring knock to left field, and a second run crossed the plate when Dean misplayed the ball.
Conley (1-4) settled in to retire the next 11 batters he faced and went on to pitch eight innings, a season high for a Baby Cakes starter. The left-hander struck out three and walked one and has a 1.89 ERA over his last three starts, after posting a 19.64 ERA over his first three outings of the year.
The capitalized on a pair of defensive miscues in the sixth inning to get back within a run. Express left fielder Willie Calhoun broke in on a liner by Cristhian Adames which went over his head for a leadoff double, and one out later, a ground ball by Dean scooted past first baseman Hanser Alberto to score Adames.
But key hits eluded the Baby Cakes throughout the day, as they finished 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded nine on base.
Round Rock had three straight softly-hit singles against Sean Burnett in the ninth to scratch out an insurance run, and R.J. Alvarez worked around Cito Culver's leadoff single in the bottom of the ninth to record his fifth save.
Austin Bibens-Dirkx (1-3) earned his first win of the year with eight strikeouts in five innings while limiting the 'Cakes to an unearned run on seven hits. Four Express pitchers combined to record 14 strikeouts, including 10 from the 3-4-5 hitters in the New Orleans lineup.
The Baby Cakes wrap up the series and the brief homestand on Thursday at 7 p.m.