Shuckers shut out M-braves

PEARL – A trio of Biloxi Shuckers shut out the Mississippi Braves on Friday night at Trustmark Park 3-0 handing the M-braves their seventh consecutive loss. The shutout spoiled Tucker Davidson's quality start and nine-strikeout performance for the home team.

Davidson scattered six hits over seven innings of tworun baseball, surrendering a pair of runs in the second inning, but retired 14 of the final 16 batters and earn his fifth quality start of 2019.

Jake Gatewood and Weston Wilson led off the second inning with singles, and Joantgel Segovia dropped in a double down the right-field line scoring Gatewood to make it 1-0. After Davidson struck out his second batter of the night, pitcher Drew Rasmussen laid down a safety squeeze bunt to bring in Wilson and extend the lead to 2-0.

The 23-year-old Davidson struck out nine, falling just one punchout shy of matching his season and career high. He entered with a league-best 2.00 ERA and exited the night tied with Pensacola's Griffin Jax for the highest ERA at 2.04. The Amarillo, Texas native is also up to 94 strikeouts for the season, which ranks sixth in the league.

Rasmussen pitched the first three innings for the Shuckers, giving up just one hit and Johan Belisario added five two-hit innings to earn the win. Belisario returned from Triple-a San Antonio on Friday and lowered his Double-a ERA to 2.59. Cody Ponce pitched the ninth to earn the save.

Biloxi added an additional run in the eighth inning to increase their lead to 3-0.