Biscuits Fall 5-4 to BayBears in Hard Fought Game

The Biscuits (75-59) lost game four of their five-game series against Mobile (63-70), by a score of 5-4, on Tuesday night at Riverwalk Stadium. Despite a loss, Montgomery officially clinched the wild card spot thanks to losses from both the Jackson Generals and Tennessee Smokies. Both teams are now officially out of playoff contention.

Logan Darnell (5-2) made his 11th start of the season, and was roughed up, tossing just five innings while allowing four runs on eight hits and striking out four in a loss. Mobile opened up the scoring in the first with a two-run homer from Zach Houchins to give the BayBears a 2-0 lead over the Biscuits.

After Jake Cronenworth scored on a Jake Jewell wild pitch in the bottom half of the first, the Biscuits took their first lead by putting up a three-spot in the second. With two outs, Montgomery got a pair of RBI-doubles from Cronenworth and Michael Russell, and a RBI-single from Brandon Lowe to take a 4-2 lead.

As the game entered the fifth the score remained 4-2 in favor of the Biscuits, until Houchins drove in a run on a groundball double down the left field line that scored Matt Thaiss. A few batters later Zach Gibbons stepped up and reached on a fielding error by third baseman Michael Russell on a ground ball hit down the third baseline. Gibbons advanced to second on a throwing error by left fielder Cade Gotta that scored Jose Briceno and Houchins to give Mobile a 5-4 lead, and they never looked back.

Relievers Greg Harris, Jordan Harrison, and Kyle Winkler combined to throw three shutout innings as the Biscuits maintained a one-run deficit going into the bottom of the ninth inning.

Brett Sullivan led off the ninth inning with a double to right field, and after Nathan Lukes was called out on strikes in the next at-bat, Andrew Velazquez would then advance him on a groundout to second baseman Tim Arakawa. With two outs and a runner on third Cronenworth would fly out to center to end the game.

After officially clinching the wild card spot, the Biscuits will look to win tomorrow’s rubber match, when Jose Mujica (12-8) tries to earn win number 13 of the year and pass Taylor Guerrieri (12), and Victor Mateo (12) for the second most wins in Biscuits history. The right-hander will battle with Luis Pena (1-1) on Wednesday night at Riverwalk Stadium in their final regular-season home game. First pitch is set to begin at 7:05 PM CT.