(27-24) Gwinnett Braves 5, (18-33) Louisville Bats 7

Box Score

Johan Camargo, SS: 3-4, HR, BB, 2 RBI, .311/.353/.500

Ozzie Albies, 2B: 1-4, .266/.309/.382

Dustin Peterson, LF,: 1-4, .300/.364/.375

Wes Parsons, SP: 4 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 6.75 ERA

The offense for Gwinnett put up a strong effort in support of Wes Parsons and the rest of the pitching staff in this one, but they couldn’t keep pace with the Bats in this one. Gwinnett led early when Adonis Garcia doubled in Anthony Recker and Johan Camargo, but from then on had to play catchup. Gwinnett added one in the 5th off of Braeden Schlehuber’s first home run since May 30, 2014, and the pulled within one on Johan Camargo’s 2-run home run in the 7th but couldn’t get all the way even. That home run for Camargo was his 4th of the season, already tying his career-best number he set last season. He added 2 more hits and a walk on the day, reaching base 4 times in a game for the first time this season.

The pitching staff struggled in keeping the Bats off of the basepaths, allowing 22 total baserunners in this game. They weren’t aided by the defense much either as the GBraves committed 3 errors that lead to 2 unearned runs. Wes Parsons had to work around trouble early in his start, allowing 6 hits and a walk through the first 3 innings, but he managed to strand all but 1 and let the GBraves hold the early lead. The Bats then scored two runs off of 3 hits against Parsons in the 4th, and the game turned over to the bullpen. Akeel Morris struggled in this outing, allowing a home run to the first batter he faced in the 5th inning. In the 6th, he only was able to record 2 outs (though Carlos Franco made an error to open the inning), and allowed 2 more runs to score. Evan Phillips cleaned up that inning and pitched a scoreless 8th before turning it over to Mauricio Cabrera. Cabrera walked 3 in his only inning of work (1 intentionally), and managed to only allow 1 run with the help of Anthony Recker catching a runner trying to steal 2nd with none out.

Next Game: 6/1 vs (18-33) Louisville Bats @ 7:05 PM ET

Probable Starters

GWN: Andrew Albers (4-1, 3.46 ERA)

LOU: Ismael Guillon (0-1, 9.72)

(26-26) Mississippi Braves 9 (27-25) Jackson Generals 3

Box Score

Travis Demeritte, 3B: 1-4, BB, RBI, .257/.333/.449

Ronald Acuna, LF: 4-5, RBI, 2 SB, .340/.392/.543

Joey Meneses, 1B: 2-5, 2 HR, .288/.335/377

Mike Soroka, SP: 6 IP, 11 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 0 K, 3.13 ERA

Hits came in bunches for the Mississippi Braves, who scored their most runs in a game since May 15th and finished the month on a 3 game winning streak. The work started with 2 outs in the 2nd, after Connor Lien walked and Dylan Moore and Sal Giardina got back-to-back singles to tie the game at 1-1. Then in the 3rd Joey Meneses hit the first of 2 home runs on the day, scoring Ronald Acuña and Luis Valenzuela to give the Braves a lead they would hold until the end. Mike Soroka knocked in the next run with a double in the 6th inning, his first RBI of the season, and Eric Cole’s head exploded in utter joy at the sight. Soroka then scored from 2nd base on a 2-out Ronald Acuña single. Joey Meneses hit hit second home run in the 8th inning, his first mulit-home run game in his career. The MBraves then added 2 more runs in the 8th inning. Ronald Acuña stole 2 bases in the game to bring his season total to 26. That is the second highest number in all of minor league baseball, and he’s already 3rd in the Southern League with 12 despite only 21 games played.

Mike Soroka had a very odd outing on the mound, despite eventually earning his 2nd quality start of the season. For starters, Soroka didn’t strike out a single batter in the entire game, the first time he’s done that since his 1 inning professional debut in July of 2015. He allowed 11 hits in the game, 2 more than his previous career high, but still didn’t cross the 100 pitch mark despite pitching into the 7th inning (though he didn’t record any outs). Soroka walked the first batter of the game (and then no one else), and Kevin Cron scored him with a double to give Jackson an early lead. Kevin Cron then doubled again in the 3rd to score the next run off of Soroka, but outside of that Soroka shut them off of the scoreboard in the early going. Soroka got around 2 straight doubles to open the 4th by forcing a double play and then allowed 2 hits in the 5th but without allowing a run to score. Soroka was brought out for the 7th and allowed 3 straight hits to load the bases before getting pulled for Jesse Biddle. Biddle walked in that run with one out, but forced a double play to end the threat with the MBraves still leading by 4 runs. Jason Hursh pitched the final 2 innings and held the Generals scoreless.

Next Game: 6/1 vs (27-25) Jackson Generals @ 7:05 PM ET

Probable Starters

MIS: Kolby Allard (4-2, 1.83 ERA)

JXN: Joel Payamps (0-1, 9.00 ERA

(22-31) Florida Fire Frogs 5, (29-24) Clearwater Threshers 9

Box Score

Carlos Castro, 1B: 1-4, HR, 2 RBI, .341/.377/.545

Austin Riley, 3B: 0-4, .263/.321/.424

Braxton Davidson, LF: 0-2, 2 BB, .213/.362/.333

Touki Toussaint, SP: 5 IP, 10 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 6.84 ERA

Early fireworks left the Fire Frogs leading by 2 runs after the 3rd inning, but Clearwater took the lead and won off of late runs while the Fire Frogs offense was held in check after that point. Florida opened the scoring on a Tyler Neslony double, scoring Anfernee Seymour. After Clearwater answered with 2 runs, Florida retook the lead with 2 of their own by taking advantage of a throwing error and a fielding error by the Threshers. Ray-Patrick Didder walked and Anfernee Seymour walked to load the bases after the first error allowed Tanner Murphy to reach, and then Murphy and Didder scored when the third baseman couldn’t handle a ball at third base off the bat of Omar Obregon. The Fire Frogs extended the lead to 5-1 in the top of the 3rd, as Carlos Castro hit a 2 run home run in his return from the disabled list after he was hit in the face by a pitch on May 11th. Castro’s home run was his 7th of the season, and his .922 OPS currently stands as his career high. Braxton Davidson walked twice on the day and ends his month of May with 20 walks in 24 games and a .394 OBP. Despite falling off a bit towards the end of the month, Austin Riley hit .282/.350/.456 and had a 19.2% K rate and 9.2% BB rate. Tyler Neslony pushed his hitting streak to 11 games. Anfernee Seymour has hit safely in each of his last 6 games, and has 6 walks during that time frame.

Touki Toussaint struggled again on the mound, as did the rest of the pitching staff. Toussaint’s first 3 batters went triple, single, walk, and then he allowed another run on a second single later in the inning. Toussaint limited the damage to 1 run over the next 4 innings, but allowed the first 2 batters to reach in the 6th inning before being pulled. Sean McLaughlin allowed one of those runs to score but preserved the lead at 5-4, but that didn’t last long. McLaughlin allowed a 2 run home run in the 7th that gave the Threshers the lead for good. Taylor Lewis came on in relief of McLaughlin and allowed 3 runs in his inning of work.

Next Game: 6/1 @ (29-24) Clearwater Threshers 7:00 PM ET

Probable Starters

FLO: Enderson Franco (0-3, 8.68 ERA)

CLR: Jacob Waguespack (2-2, 3.08 ERA)

(30-23) Rome Braves 1, (32-20) Greenville Drive 7

Box Score

Cristian Pache, CF,: 0-3, BB, .286/.343/.354

Brett Cumberland, C: 1-4, 2B, .276/.458/.569

Randy Ventura, RF: 1-3, BB, .337/.379/.364

Ryan Lawlor, SP: 5.2 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 9 K, 4.37 ERA

The Rome Braves got 1 run early, but were shut down for much of the game and couldn’t back what was a great Ryan Lawlor start until the final inning. Brett Cumberland doubled in the top of the 2nd to extend his hitting streak to 11 games, and then Ramon Osuna doubled to score Cumberland and give Rome it’s only run of the game. Cumberland has had an extra vase hit in each of his last 6 games and over his past 13 games has 13 extra base hits (7 doubles, 6 home runs). He has knocked in 25 of his 34 RBIs on the season in that span, and has moved himself up to 11th in the minor leagues by OPS. Kurt Hoekstra has been quietly hot for the last few weeks, with a 6 game hitting streak now. Since May 16th (13 games) Hoekstra is hitting .391/.429/.630 with 7 doubles and 2 triples. Ramon Osuna has 4 hits in 11 at bats since he was selected as the replacement at first base, though he has struck out 5 times in the 7 at bats he hasn’t gotten a hit.

Ryan Lawlor was on his game early in this one, allowing a first inning single but working around it with a strikeout to get out of the inning. He struck out another and worked a clean second, then struck out 2 in his 3rd inning but allowed a single. Lawlor shut down the drive in the 4th and 5th by striking out 4 of the 6 batters he faced, and then he struck out the first batter to open the 6th inning. From there hits started to fall left and right and by the time he was pulled Lawlor had allowed 3 hits and 2 runs, and was charged with a third when Raymar Navarro couldn’t strand the last runner. Lawlor altogether worked a strong 2 pitch mix with his fastball-curveball, getting good location on both (especially the fastball) and getting plenty of swings and misses with a good curveball. His lack of use of his changeup became apparent as he tried to work through the order a third time and hitters were really able to lock him down. Raymar Navarro allowed 3 more runs in the 7th inning and then a run in the 8th, so while Rome had the lead much of the way they ended up getting torched by the Drive.

Next Game: 6/1 @ (24-25) West Virginia Power 7:00 PM ET

Probable Starters

ROM: Bryse Wilson (3-1, 1.90 ERA)

WV: Blake Cederlind (2-0, 3.54 ERA)