BILOXI, Miss — Shuckers first baseman Mike Boeve went 3-4 with a homer, double and all three of Biloxi’s RBI as the Shuckers defeated the Trash Pandas 3-2 Friday evening from MGM Park. It was the Trash Pandas’ 14th loss in their last 18 games. Rocket City was held to three hits, giving them only four base-knocks over their last 20.2 innings.
Ironically, the Trash Pandas got the ball rolling offensively with a run in the first. Leftfielder Gustavo Campero was hit by a pitch to leadoff the game. He went to second on a passed ball, then advanced to third on a groundout. That set the stage for rightfielder Orlando Martinez who ripped an RBI double to center to put Rocket City on the board.
The Shuckers would respond with two of their own in the third. Rightfielder Connor Scott started the uprising with a one out single to center. Second baseman Dylan O’Rae came up next and flared a double down the leftfield line, which moved Scott to third. Boeve came up next and ripped a two-run double down the rightfield line to put Biloxi ahead.
Boeve extended the Shuckers’ lead in the fifth when he drilled his fourth homerun of the year over the rightfield wall. It was a solo blast giving the Biloxi a 3-1 lead.
It wound up being the difference-maker as Rocket City got a run back in the sixth when third baseman Eric Wagaman smoked his team-leading 14th homerun of the season to left-center. It was another solo shot to make the score 3-2. In addition, it was Wagaman’s second dinger of the series.
However, that was as close as the Trash Pandas would get as Biloxi’s bullpen fired 2.2 innings of scoreless relief to nail down the win. Their work followed a tremendous outing from Shuckers starting pitcher Logan Henderson (W, 6-2) who allowed two runs on two hits over 6.1 innings to get the win. He also walked none and struck out eight for the contest.
The tough-luck loser for Rocket City was starting pitcher Jack Kochanowicz (L, 5-8) who pitched well, allowing three runs on six hits over seven frames with five punchouts. The save went to Biloxi closer Justin Yeager (S, 13) who walked one and struck out another in a scoreless ninth.
The teams combined for nine hits with the Shuckers collecting six of them. Boeve was the only player with multiple hits for either team.
The Trash Pandas and Shuckers will go at it in game five of their series Saturday evening with first pitch slated for 6:05.
