M-Braves fall to Blue Wahoos

PEARL – The Mississippi Braves were defeated by the Pensacola Blue Wahoos for the second time in two days after dropping game two of the five game series 8-4. Much like Monday night, the Blue Wahoos bats warmed up quickly as they scored five runs in the top of the first inning.

The Mississippi Braves welcomed a familiar face on the mound in the former 2017 M-Braves starter, Luiz Gohara. Gohara was assigned to Mississippi earlier in the day as part of his Major League Baseball rehab. The lefthander started Tuesday night’s contest in place of Touki Toussaint who was originally scheduled as Mississippi’s Tuesday night starter. Gohara’s appearance with the M-Braves on Tuesday night was his first appearance of the 2018 season at any level and in 3.1 innings pitched, Gohara allowed five hits, five runs, one earned, issued three walks and struck out four Blue Wahoos batters.

Mississippi got on the board in the bottom of the first inning after Tyler Neslony reached base safely on a fielding error by Pensacola first baseman, Gavin LaValley, allowing Alay Logo to score from third.

The score remained 5-1 until the top of the fifth inning when Pensacola extended their lead 6-1 after Josh VanMeter singled to left field, which allowed Gabriel Guerrero to score.

Mississippi earned their second run of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning after Austin Riley ripped a check swing double into the gap in right field allowing Lago to cross the plate, making the score 6-2 in favor of Pensacola.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, Mississippi picked up two more runs when Lago roped a line drive triple into right field scoring both Luis Valenzuela and Michael.

After entering the game in the fourth inning in relief of Gohara, right-hander Elian Leyva exited the game in the top of the eighth inning after tossing 3.2 innings of solid relief. The right-hander who was transferred from Triple-A Gwinnett earlier in the day allowed one earned run on three hits, walked one batter and struck out two.