The Jumbo Shrimp, the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins, struck the first blow this evening only two batters into the night’s action. Jacksonville’s shortstop, Jacob Amaya, took a 1-0 cutter the other way for a solo home run that just barely cleared the wall in right for the 1-0 first inning lead.
A couple of scoreless frames followed the blast until the top of the fourth when Amaya sent another one to the seats, this time to left-center to tack on another run for Jacksonville. Later in the frame, Peyton Burdick collected an RBI single to give the Jumbo Shrimp a 3-0 advantage.
Norfolk, the Triple-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, dipped into the Jacksonville lead in the home half of the fourth with Heston Kjerstad driving one to straightaway center for a solo shot to get the Tides on the board.
A four-run fifth inning for Jacksonville began with Amaya driving in his third run of the game on a single up the middle. The next batter, Troy Johnston, proceeded to launch a three-run home run to put the Jumbo Shrimp ahead by six runs.
The ball continued to fly out of the ballpark in the bottom of the fifth with Lewin Díaz belting one to right-center for a solo home run. They continued to rally by loading the bases for Colton Cowser who checked in with a sac fly to put three ticks on the board for Norfolk.
After Jackson Holliday collected his first Triple-A hit in the seventh with a hustle double down the right field line, he came around to score the fourth run of the game for the Tides on a Connor Norby sac fly to cut the Norfolk deficit to three.
A two-out triple from Burdick scratched two runs for the Jumbo Shrimp in the ninth and they would close it out in the bottom half of the inning, tagging Norfolk with the series opening loss.
Norfolk is back in action tomorrow night against Jacksonville with first pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m. Scheduled to take the ball for the Tides is LHP John Means (1-0, 0.96) and the Jumbo Shrimp will send RHP Chi Chi Gonzalez (6-9, 6.16) to the hill.
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Chris Graham
