Manuel Rodriguez walked off the mound for the last time in the regular season with five scoreless innings behind him, a slim lead in Biloxi’s hands and a place of his own in the franchise record book.
Rodriguez struck out five without issuing a walk Sunday at Blue Wahoos Stadium, earning his Biloxi-record 13th victory as the Shuckers held off Pensacola 2-1. The right-hander finished the season 13-4, closing it with the kind of controlled outing that gave Biloxi room to win without an extra-base hit producing either of its runs.
Pensacola put a runner aboard in four of Rodriguez’s five innings, but never pushed one beyond second base. Rodriguez navigated a hit in the second, striking out Payton Green to end that threat, and completed his afternoon by fanning Ethan O’Donnell and Green in the fifth before stranding a two-out single.
Asked afterward about finishing the regular season with a record-setting win, Rodriguez turned the attention toward the collective task.
“They just try to keep winning and just keep trying to take a game by game.”
— Manuel Rodriguez, Biloxi Shuckers Starting Pitcher
The Shuckers gave him the lead by building runs instead of delivering one defining swing.
Mike Boeve opened the third by lining a ball into center field, and Darrien Miller followed with a single to right. After Dylan O’Rae struck out, Braylon Payne walked to load the bases. Jesús Made then lifted a fly ball into right-center, deep enough for Boeve to tag and score the game’s first run.
Biloxi followed much the same formula in the fifth. Miller lined his second hit of the afternoon into center, O’Rae moved him to third with a sacrifice bunt and Payne brought him home with a sacrifice fly to center. The second run proved decisive.
Miller went 2-for-3 with a walk and scored once, helping Biloxi finish with nine hits. Josh Adamczewski also went 2-for-4 and provided the Shuckers’ only extra-base hit, driving a ball into the left-center gap to begin the sixth. Colby Shade’s diving attempt could not cut it off, and Dillon Lewis retrieved it after Adamczewski reached second with his 16th double. Biloxi could not turn that chance into insurance.
That omission mattered once Lewis stepped in with two outs in the eighth. Facing Peyton Niksch, the Pensacola center fielder hammered a drive into deep left-center, beyond Payne’s retreat and over the wall for his 18th homer. The solo shot cut Biloxi’s lead to 2-1 and ended the shutout bid.
Niksch recovered to strike out Connor Caskenette and finish the inning. He worked three innings, allowing one earned run with two strikeouts and one walk.
The final three outs required more than a routine save. Garrett Hodges hit O’Donnell to begin the ninth, and Green followed with a soft bunt single that put two aboard with nobody out. Pensacola tried to keep bunting, but Jay Beshears popped his attempt back to Hodges.
That changed the inning. Hodges got Ian Lewis Jr. on a fly ball to left, then induced Shade to pop out to O’Rae at second base, preserving Rodriguez’s record-setting win and collecting his second save.
Biloxi finished the regular season with two runs, nine hits and no errors. Pensacola managed eight hits, but Lewis’s late homer was its only run, leaving Rodriguez’s final start intact all the way through the last tense swing.