
The Suns defeated the Smokies 8-5 at the Baseball Grounds to take three of five games in the series. Jacksonville won all three series against Tennessee during the season. Photo Courtesy: Tennessee Smokies
By Steve Kolbe
The Suns defeated the Smokies 8-5 at the Baseball Grounds to take three of five games in the series. Jacksonville won all three series against Tennessee during the season. Photo Courtesy: Tennessee Smokies
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
Catcher Kyle Skipworth(left)and second baseman Paul Gran each collected three hits in the Suns 8-7 walk-off win over the Mississippi Braves July 19, 2012 at the Baseball Grounds. Photo Courtesy: Jacksonville Suns
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
Stars first baseman Hunter Morris(above)hits one of his two solo home runs in 10-5 win over the Jacksonville Suns at Joe Davis Stadium. Photo Courtesy: Huntsville Stars
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
Suns starter Zack Neal(4-6)allowed two runs on seven hits over seven innings. The only runs he allowed were on a two-run home run by Greg Rohan(above)in the first inning. Photo Courtesy: Tennessee Smokies
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
Jeff Dominguez, Curt Smith, and Paul Gran each hit a home run in the Suns 10-4 win over the Pensacola Blue Wahoos at the Baseball Grounds. Photo Courtesy: Jacksonville Suns
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
Curt Smith and Kyle Jensen each hit home runs, and the Suns scored three runs in the tenth inning for a 5-2 win over the Montgomery Biscuits at Riverwalk Stadium June 27, 2012. Photo Courtesy: Jacksonville Suns
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
The Suns take two from the Tennessee Smokies, 11-3 and 10-3, on a stormy day June 25, 2012 at the Baseball Grounds. Photo Courtesy: Jacksonville Suns
By Steve Kolbe
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
By Steve Kolbe
A day after allowing a season-high 13 runs, the Jacksonville Suns rebounded for a 6-1 win over the Braves at Trustmark Park in Pearl, Mississippi on Friday night.
The Suns broke the ice in the first inning against Braves starter Luis Avilan. Donnie Webb led off the inning with a walk, and Jake Smolinski reached on a throwing error by third baseman Joe Terdoslavich, with Webb advancing to third on the play. Avilan then threw his fourth wild pitch of the season, with Webb scoring to give the Suns a 1-0 advantage. The Suns have scored at least one run in the first inning in 18 games this season, and are 15-3 in those games. Jacksonville is now 26-6 when crossing the plate first.
In the third inning, Webb found himself in the middle of the offense again when he led off with a single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Shawn Bowman to increase the Suns lead to 2-0.
Suns starter Bryan Evans baffled the Braves throughout the night, and after allowing a single in the first inning he retired the next 16 batters he faced until the seventh inning. In the seventh, Keenan Wiley led off with a bunt single and went to second on a sacrifice bunt. With two outs, Tim Smith put the Braves on the board with a RBI single, with Wiley scoring to cut the Suns lead to 2-1. Kyle Kaminska took over for Evans to record the final out of the inning.
In the eighth inning, the Suns scored four runs against reliever Brett Cammons, all with two outs. Jake Smolinksi walked and scored when Shawn Bowman hit his team-leading 16th double of the season, and the lead was 3-1. Kyle Jensen extended the inning when he reached base on an infield single, with Smolinski moving around to third to put runners on the corners. Curt Smith delivered the big hit in the inning, with a towering three-run home run to left field to pad the Suns lead to 6-1. After going without a round tripper since the first series of the year, Smith has now hit two home runs in his last four games.
The Suns have won seven of their last 10 road games, and improved to 19-14 away from home this season. Jacksonville has scored at least five runs in six of their last seven road wins. The Suns won for just the second time this season on Friday (2-9). The Braves have lost six of their last eight games overall. Mississippi has won two games in a row only once in the last 22 games.
Suns shortstop Chris Gutierrez extended his hit streak to 14 games with a single in the third inning. He hasn’t gone hitless since May 30th. Mississippi center fielder Todd Cunningham also increased his hit streak to 14 consecutive games with a single in the first. Shawn Bowman drove in two runs for the Suns, and now leads the team with 32 runs batted in. Curt Smith has hit two three-run home runs in the last week, and he now has 27 runs batted in this season.
Bryan Evans entered the game among the top five pitchers in the league in lowest batting average against. He had a dominant performance, pitching six and two-thirds innings and allowing one run on three hits to improve his record to 2-4. He has won his last two decisions. Evans struck out a season-high eight batters, including striking out the side in the second inning and retiring the side in the third on just nine pitches. Evans retired 16 Braves in a row after allowing a single in the first inning. Kyle Kaminska and A.J. Ramos combined to pitch the final two and a-third innings.
Braves starter Luis Avilan pitched a season-high six innings, allowing just two hits and one earned run, but saw his record fall to 1-5 on the season.
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News
Omar Poveda struck out a season-high eight batters in the Suns 4-2 win over the Jackson Generals June 7, 2012 at the Baseball Grounds. Photo Courtesy: Jacksonville Suns
By Steve Kolbe
After a 42 minute rain delay, the Jacksonville Suns won their first meeting of the season against the Jackson Generals 4-2 at the Baseball Grounds on Thursday night. Jackson entered the game winners of eight of their last 10 games, and the Generals 37 victories are the most in the Southern League.
The Generals broke the ice in the top of the first inning against Suns starter Omar Poveda. After a lead off single by Denny Almonte and a force out that left Nick Franklin on first base, catcher Jesus Sucre put Jackson on top 1-0 with a RBI single to center field.
The lead lasted for just an inning, with the Suns getting to Generals starting pitcher Taijuan Walker in the home half of the second. After Kyle Skipworth and Paul Gran were retired, Ryan Patterson started a two-out rally with a single. Jose Duarte singled behind him, with Patterson moving to third base and Duarte advancing to second on a throwing error. Designated hitter Curt Smith drove in both base runners with the third straight single in the inning to put the Suns ahead 2-1.
Jacksonville tacked on two more in the third inning against Walker. Chris Gutierrez and Shawn Bowman singled, and Paul Gran walked to load the bases. This season the Suns had been 3-for-9 as a team with the bases loaded, and Ryan Patterson alone was 0-for-5. With two outs, Patterson wasn’t denied this time, driving a single to center field with Gutierrez and Bowman scoring to increase the lead to 4-1.
The Generals scored their final run of the night in the sixth inning, a lead off home run by Joe Dunigan against Poveda to cut the lead to 4-2, but that would be the final run of the night. Dunigan’s solo blast to left field tied him with Denny Almonte for the Generals team lead with nine round trippers. Jackson leads the Southern League with 46 home runs.
The Suns improved their record to 12-19 at the Baseball Grounds, while the Generals are now 17-14 on the road. Jacksonville is 7-27 when allowing the first run of the game, and Jackson is now 27-7 when crossing the plate first.
The bottom third of the Suns batting order accounted for all the offense in the win, going 7-for-10 with four runs batted in and two runs scored. Ryan Patterson went 3-for-4 with two RBI and a run scored. Curt Smith and Jose Duarte each finished 2-for-3. Smith drove in two and now has 20 runs batted in this season. Duarte recorded his first multi-hit game of the year. The Suns collected nine hits, all singles.
Suns starter Omar Poveda pitched a season-high seven innings to improve his record to 5-2. He allowed two runs on five hits, and struck out a season-high eight batters. Poveda has won two straight decisions for the first time since April, when he started the season 2-0. Kyle Kaminska and A.J. Ramos combined to pitch two innings of scoreless baseball, with Ramos closing the door in the ninth for his third save of the season.
Generals starter Taijuan Walker was hit in his throwing arm when Donnie Webb, the Suns first batter of the game, sent a hard ground ball back up the middle in the first inning. While that may or may not have factored in the 19-year-old’s early struggles, he tossed his his second-shortest outing of the season, allowing four runs on six hits in just three innings of work. Walker had allowed a total of 16 runs this season, and Thursday’s loss to the Suns was the first time in his 11 starts that he surrendered more than two runs in a game.
Game two of the series is Friday at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville with the first pitch scheduled for 7:05PM. In a match up of left handers, Jose Alvarez (1-2, 4.64) will start for the 11th time this season for the Suns. Danny Hultzen (6-3, 1.44) will take the mound for his 12th start of the season. Hultzen ranks first in the league in ERA at 1.44, and he ranks second in strikeouts with 67.
Filed under Ahead Of The Curve, Southern League News