SL PLAYOFFS: Biscuits season comes to an end in playoff loss to Wahoos

Biscuits catcher Kenny Piper drove in a run in a losing cause Thursday against Pensacola. (File photo)

By TIM GAYLE
PENSACOLA -- Pensacola pitchers struck out 13 batters and held Montgomery without an earned run, finishing off the Biscuits 5-1 in the Southern League Divisional Playoffs at Blue Wahoos Park on Thursday night.

Montgomery, making its eighth consecutive playoff appearance, continued its postseason slide. Since winning the Southern League championship in 2006 and 2007, the Biscuits have failed to win a postseason series in nine appearances.  

This week’s performance against the defending Southern League champions followed a familiar script -- a Montgomery team that was playing its best baseball entering the postseason failed to maintain its momentum.

On Tuesday, the Biscuits allowed three home runs and six extra-base hits in a 5-2 loss at Riverwalk Stadium. On Thursday, facing elimination, the Biscuits hit into a double play in the first inning and struck out at least twice in five successive innings, giving themselves little chance of mounting a rally. 

Montgomery starter Sean Hunley walked Will Banfield and Victor Mesa to open the fourth inning and was replaced by Jeff Belge. Jake Thompson’s one-out double scored Banfield and Bennett Hostetler’s two-out single drove in Paul McIntosh and Thompson for a 3-0 lead by Pensacola (81-57).

McIntosh singled in Nasim Nunez in the fifth and Cody Morissette hit the Blue Wahoos’ 167th home run this season in the seventh for a 5-0 lead.

The Biscuits’ best chance for a rally came in the top of the seventh as Kenny Piper hit a one-out double and Dru Baker followed with a single. Pensacola starter Patrick Monteverde was replaced by Zach McCambley, who struck out Carson Williams on a called third strike and got Mason Auer to pop up.

Piper reached base on a two-out error in the ninth and scored on a double by Baker for the Biscuits’ only run. Piper and Baker had four of the Biscuits’ six hits.

Montgomery (80-60) entered the postseason with the most wins in the Southern League and the second-most wins in Double-A baseball, but were swept in the divisional series for the first time in club history. The Biscuits, who were 2 for 7 with runners in scoring position on Tuesday, were 2 for 8 on Thursday. 

Tennessee swept the North Division with a 5-1 win at Chattanooga on Thursday. Tennessee will host the first game of the best-of-three Southern League Championship Series on Sunday afternoon. Pensacola will host the second game on Tuesday and a third game, if necessary, on Wednesday.