Pensacola spent Saturday night searching for the strike zone while Biloxi kept circling the bases.
Twelve walks issued by four Blue Wahoos pitchers fed a relentless Shuckers attack, turning a two-run game into a rout before the middle innings were complete. Biloxi piled up 15 hits and four home runs in a 19-1 win at Blue Wahoos Stadium, handing Pensacola a loss in which nearly every free pass carried a cost.
Emmett Olson’s Double-A debut began with two walks in the first inning. Damon Keith converted the early command trouble into a run when his softly hit fly fell among three defenders in shallow right-center, allowing Dylan O’Rae to score. Eric Bitonti’s sacrifice fly brought home Andrew Fischer for a 2-0 lead.
Olson kept Biloxi from scoring in the next two innings, but the traffic never stopped. He walked seven over 3 1/3 innings, allowing three earned runs and striking out three.
Pensacola had its best early chance in the third. Adrian Santana and Cristian Hernández singled, and Max Williams walked to load the bases with one out. Josh Knoth answered by striking out Dillon Lewis and retiring Ryan Ignoffo on a fly ball, preserving Biloxi’s two-run cushion.
That cushion disappeared in one swing an inning later. Olson walked Mike Boeve before Justin Storm entered from the bullpen. Storm struck out Mark Coley II, then walked O’Rae ahead of Braylon Payne, who lifted a hanging slider on a towering drive to dead center. Emaarion Boyd retreated to the wall, but the ball carried beyond him for a three-run homer and a 5-0 Biloxi lead.
The Blue Wahoos threatened an immediate response when Dylan Jasso drove a ball toward the left-field wall in the bottom of the fourth. Coley leaped, but the ball struck near the top of the wall and stayed in play for a double. Jasso was stranded there.
Biloxi’s pressure continued. Storm surrendered three runs in the fifth, finishing with five earned runs allowed over 1 2/3 innings. He walked four, pushing Pensacola’s total to 11 before the game reached the sixth.
Payne greeted Mason Vinyard in that inning by crushing the first pitch to right-center for his second homer of the night. The no-doubt shot began a five-run inning that also included run-scoring doubles by Matthew Wood, Daniel Dickinson and Coley. By the time it ended, Biloxi led 13-0.
Payne finished 3-for-6 with two home runs, four RBIs and two runs scored. Knoth, meanwhile, held Pensacola scoreless for five innings, striking out seven and walking three to earn the win.
The Shuckers added six more runs in the ninth against position player Ian Lewis Jr. Fischer drove a ball over the right-center-field wall, and Coley completed the inning with a two-run homer to left-center. Lewis worked two innings and allowed one earned run, with the damage compounded by Pensacola’s lone error.
Jasso supplied the Blue Wahoos’ last word. After Colby Shade singled in the bottom of the ninth, Jasso lined a ball into the left-center gap and to the wall. Shade raced around from first with Pensacola’s only run.
It was Jasso’s second double of the game, one of seven Blue Wahoos hits. Hernández added two hits, including a double, but Pensacola’s scattered chances could not compete with Biloxi’s constant supply of baserunners—or overcome a night when the walks kept opening the door.