Rocket City pitchers held Birmingham to five hits while the bats manufactured just enough offense in a 2-1 victory over the Barons Saturday night at Regions Field.
Trash Pandas starter Caden Dana got the ball rolling with five scoreless innings on three singles. In the sixth, the Barons finally broke through on the Rocket City righthander. Second baseman Jacob Gonzalez grounded a double down the rightfield line before scoring on a single from catcher Edgar Quero to put Birmingham up 1-0.
Until that point the Trash Pandas were held to no runs on three hits, part of a span that saw them held scoreless over 17 innings dating back to the eighth inning of Thursday’s game.
Finally, in the seventh, Rocket City plated two runs. After first baseman Eric Wagaman and leftfielder Tucker Flint drew leadoff walks, designated hitter Gustavo Campero laid down a SAC bunt to move the runners up a base. That set the stage for third baseman Ben Gobbel who lined a single to center to score Wagaman and advance Flint to third.
With the infield back and only one out, second baseman Mac McCroskey pushed another bunt up the first base line for a single, which scored Flint and gave the Trash Pandas a 2-1 lead.
That was enough for Rocket City’s pitchers. Dana (W, 3) got the win by firing six innings of one-run ball on five hits with two walks and six strikeouts. After him, setup man Hayden Seig tossed two perfect innings striking out three of the six men he faced. Closer Michael Darrel-Hicks pinned things down in the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning and striking out two.
Taking the loss for Birmingham was reliever Gil Luna (L, 1) who allowed two earned runs on two hits with two walks in his lone frame. Nobody had more than one hit for the Trash Pandas while Quero finished 2-4 with an RBI for the Barons.
The Trash Pandas and Barons will meet on Sunday afternoon in the rubber game of their seven-game series. First pitch is slated for 4:00 p.m.