JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The Suns were held to just four singles in a 2-1 loss to the Montgomery Biscuits on Thursday night at the Baseball Grounds. Montgomery has outscored the Suns 8-3 in the first two games of the series.
The starting pitchers, Matthew Neil for the Suns and Alex Colome for the Biscuits, combined to allow just four singles in the first four innings of the game. Jacksonville failed to take advantage of some control issues by Colome. He walked a season-high six batters in his six innings of work, but didn't surrender a run.
Montgomery took the lead in the fifth inning against Neil. Michael Sheridan hit a high fly ball to left field that fell in fair territory between the trio of Jose Duarte, Chris Gutierrez, and Curt Smith. Sheridan ended up on second, and scored when Brett Nommensen singled up the middle to put the Biscuits up 1-0. The Suns are 10-36 when allowing the first run of the game.
Biscuits shortstop Hak-Hu Lee helped generate a run in the sixth inning when he led off with a walk, stole second base, and went to third on Neil's second wild pitch of the night. With one out, Omar Luna hit a sacrifice fly to center, with Lee beating the throw to the plate to increase the lead to 2-0.
The Suns scored their only run of the game in the seventh inning against reliever Shane Dyer. Jose Duarte walked, Jake Jefferies singled, and Donnie Webb walked to load the bases with no outs. Chirs Gutierrez then grounded into a double play, with Duarte scoring to make the score 2-1.
The Biscuits have won five straight games against the Suns and improved to 9-3 overall in the season series. The Suns fell to 14-18 in one-run games this season.
Suns starter Matthew Neil (1-5) allowed two runs on five hits in five and two-thirds innings, and has lost his last five decisions. Alex Colome (5-3) allowed just three singles over his six innings of work. He stuck out nine, one shy of his season high. Kirby Yates pitched two innings of hitless ball to earn his eighth save of the season.
The Suns will look to salvage the final game of the series Friday night, with the first pitch slated for 7:05 p.m. from the Baseball Grounds. LHP James Leverton (0-0, 2.25) will start his third game of the season for the Suns. LHP Kyle Lobsein (4-4, 4.47) takes the mound for the Biscuits.
