PEARL — The Mississippi Braves won their second straight gameover Huntsville, posting a 3-1 Sunday victory at Trustmark Park.The two teams face off tonight at 7:05 in the series finale and therubber match of the series.

RHP Daniel Curtis (0-0) takes the hill for Mississippi whileHuntsville counters with righty Khalid Ballouli (0-0).

On Sunday, Mississippi jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the thirdwhen pitcher Chris Waters reached on a fielder’s choice and MartinPrado followed with a single up the middle. Yunel Escobar thendoubled over right fielder Ronald Acuna’s head, bringing Waters andPrado to the plate with the Braves’ first runs of the game. Itmarked the first time in the series Mississippi had scored first ina game.

Huntsville cut the lead in half in the top of the fifth whenDrew Anderson tripled to right-center. After a walk to Steve Moss,Anderson scored on a slow roller to first.

The score remained 2-1 Braves until the bottom of the eighth.Yunel Escobar led off with a walk and moved to third on a doubleplay. He then scored on a single by Onil Joseph, giving Mississippia much needed insurance run.

Braves’ starter Chris Waters (4.2 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 3 K)was outstanding in his first start of the year. He held the Starsoffense in check for 4-plus innings.

Paul Bush (2.1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 K) held Huntsville scorelessthrough 2-plus innings and earned his first win of the year. BradBaker (1.0 IP, 1 H) threw one shutout inning and Manny Acosta (1.0IP, 1 BB) came on to earn his first save of the year.

Huntsville starter Jeff Housman (5.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7K) pitched well against Mississippi’s lineup with the exception ofthe third inning. He fell to 0-1 on the year.

Stephen Bray (2.0 IP, 2 H, 2 K) held Mississippi scoreless fortwo innings. Andy Pratt (1.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB) allowed onerun on three hits and a walk.