Biloxi spent the deciding game of the Southern League Championship Series finding openings and watching them close. Ten hits put runners aboard in seven innings, but the Shuckers turned all that traffic into one run, their season ending Wednesday night with a 3-1 loss to Rocket City at Toyota Field.
The chances came early, late and almost everywhere in between. Josh Adamczewski doubled in the second, when Matthew Wood also singled. Braylon Payne drove a ball into the left-field gap in the third, only for the extra-base hit to become an out when he tried to take third.
Even before the missed opportunities began piling up, second baseman Dylan O’Rae had described a Biloxi lineup accustomed to feeding off its own momentum.
“Yeah, we’ve said it all year that the energy is contagious, the hits are contagious, one guy goes, we all go, so I think it’s just, you know, fighting for each other as well, like, we all have each other’s back, we’re all pulling for each other, cheering for each other, we just all want to see each other succeed, and it’s been a great year.”
— Dylan O’Rae, Shuckers Second Baseman
This time, the hits never became contagious enough. Biloxi stranded two runners in the second and two more in the fourth, when Damon Keith singled and Wood walked before Austin Gordon struck out Eric Bitonti to end the threat.
Rocket City was more efficient. Eddie Micheletti Jr. and Jake Thompson singled in the third, and Nick Rodriguez punched a first-pitch ball into left to score Micheletti with the game’s first run. Rodriguez finished 3-for-4.
The Trash Pandas doubled the lead in the fourth. Jacob Cozart singled, moved to second on a groundout and scored when Tucker Flint’s ground ball deflected past shortstop Jesús Made and rolled into center.
Biloxi kept the inning from becoming worse with a relay that turned into a rundown. Micheletti lined a ball down the right-field line, but Keith retrieved it and started the play that ended with Bitonti tagging Flint before he could reach home.
That was the last run charged to J.D. Thompson, who allowed two earned runs over 3⅔ innings while striking out five without issuing a walk. Jesús Broca, Stiven Cruz and Travis Smith combined for 3⅓ scoreless innings around Ryan Birchard’s seventh.
The Shuckers finally broke through in the seventh. Keith opened with his second hit, Bitonti singled him to third and Mike Boeve’s groundout brought Keith home while moving Bitonti to third. The tying run stayed there when O’Rae grounded out.
Rocket City answered before Biloxi could build on that opening. With two outs in the bottom half, Arjun Nimmala drove a Birchard pitch toward left-center. Adamczewski reached the wall and turned, but the ball carried out for Nimmala’s third home run and a 3-1 lead.
It was the separating swing in a game otherwise filled with runners. Biloxi threatened again in the eighth, putting Made at third after Andrew Fischer’s single, and brought two more aboard in the ninth on hits by Wood and Boeve. Kenyon Yovan struck out O’Rae and Payne to finish a five-out save, four of those outs coming by strikeout.
Gordon had already set the tone, holding the Shuckers to one run over 6⅓ innings with 10 strikeouts. Biloxi struck out 15 times overall; Payne had four and Fischer three.
Before the game, O’Rae spoke about embracing the setting and everything at stake in it.
“I mean, it’s been electric. It’s just all the guys bringing, we were talking about today, like whatever fumes you have left, like we’re all bringing it today. So like I said before, leaving it all out there, it’s going to be exciting.”
— Dylan O’Rae, Shuckers Second Baseman
The Shuckers emptied those reserves and matched Rocket City with 10 hits. The difference was what happened after they landed: one Biloxi run, too many stranded opportunities and a championship that stayed just out of reach.