Biscuits Split Series with Barons, Drop Final Game 5-4

The Biscuits (2-2) lost game four of their five-game series against the Birmingham Barons (2-2) on Sunday night, falling to their North Division rivals by a score of 5-1 at Riverwalk Stadium.

Fernando Baez (1-4) got the nod for Montgomery and struggled going 2.2 innings, allowing four runs on five hits with four walks and three strikeouts in the loss. It was not enough to match the 21-year-old righty Spencer Adams (6-6), who had a decent outing, going five innings, surrendering just three runs on four hits with five strikeouts and walking only three to earn his fifth-consecutive win.

Birmingham got on the board first in the first inning thanks to Eddy Alvarez, who drew a walk and then stole second before he advanced to third on a Baez balk and scored on a wild pitch to make it 1-0. A few hitters later Nick Basto launched his 11th home run of the season over the left field wall to give the Barons a 2-0 lead after one.

The Biscuits responded in the bottom half of the second, thanks to a sac-fly to center by Nathan Lukes and an RBI-single by Andrew Velazquez that tied the game at two, but it would not last long, as the Barons regained the advantage by scoring two runs in the third. Keon Barnum hit a sac fly to right and then Jeff Gelalich hit an RBI-single to left to put the Barons up, 4-2.

Montgomery would add a run in the third when Riley Unroe led off the inning with a walk and advanced to third on Braxton Lee’s single before scoring on Joe McCarthy’s fielders choice to make it 4-3. Reliever Edwin Fierro entered in the fourth and kept the Barons scoreless in the fourth and fifth innings before the Barons added another run in the sixth thanks to an RBI-single from Jose Vinicio to give Birmingham a 5-3 edge.

In the seventh, the Biscuits scored a run thanks to Nathan Lukes who tripled to left and then scored on a wild pitch from Barons reliever Colton Turner that made it 5-4. Relievers Fierro, Kyle Bird, and Jordan Harrison combined to allow one run on six hits while striking out seven, but their efforts were not enough, as the Biscuits lost to the Barons in three hours and thirty-one minutes, which was the longest nine-inning game for both Montgomery and Birmingham this season.

The Biscuits will try to earn their first series win of the Second Half, when Genesis Cabrera (0-0) takes the mound against Jordan Stephens (0-1) in Monday afternoon’s rubber match at 12:05 PM.