MOBILE – The Mississippi Braves walked as many batters as they ever have, allowing 11 free passes in a 9-1 loss to the Mobile BayBears Thursday night at Hank Aaron Stadium.

The mark tied a record set April 28, 2009 against the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx, a 12-6 loss in which four pitchers combined to walk 11.

Starter Zack Bird (1-1) issued five walks over two innings, while Mauricio Cabrera allowed four over one frame, and Andrew Barbosa two in three scoreless innings. Barbosa also hit two batters. Jorge Reyes was the only pitcher to not issue a walk, giving up a run over two innings of work.

Mobile (26-20) jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the second inning. With the Braves (27-20, 60-55) leading 1-0 on a KD Kang solo blast in the top half of the inning, Sean Jamieson and Tom Belza drew walks to start the frame. Ronnie Freeman singled on a liner to center to load the bases.

With nobody out, Bird walked the pitcher Edgar Garcia (4-0) to force in a run-Garcia’s first career walk and second career RBI–then walked Evan Marzilli to make it 2-1 Mobile. After back-to-back strikeouts, Garrett Weber smacked a three-run double to center for a 5-1 lead.

Bird was chased after two innings, allowing five runs on five walks and three hits, striking out four.

The BayBears tacked on another against Jorge Reyes in the fourth on a Socrates Brito solo home run, his seventh, growing the lead to 6-1.

Mauricio Cabrera worked a scoreless fifth but got into trouble in the sixth. Marzilli walked, stole second, and moved to third on a wild pitch. Jack Reinheimer followed suit with a walk, and Brito singled Marzilli home for a 7-1 lead. Weber drove in two more with a double, finishing with five RBI on the day, and the lead grew to 9-1.

Garcia allowed just a run on four hits over five innings in the winning decision for the BayBears, striking out one and walking one.

The M-Braves got their only run in the top of the second when KD Kang muscled an 0-2 pitch over the right field fence for a solo shot, his fifth homer of the season.

With Pensacola’s 6-5 loss to Biloxi, the M-Braves remain in first, a half-game ahead of the Mobile BayBears, who jumped into second with Thursday’s win.

The M-braves try to get back to winning baseball on Friday night in the third of five against the BayBears, with first pitch between right-hander Andrew Thurman and BayBear right-hander Gabriel Arias slated for 7:05 p.m.

by M-Braves Sports Media Relations