SL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: Barons score early and often to force deciding Game 3

Biscuits Game 2 starter Brody Hopkins walks off the field with catcher Tatem Levins during Tuesday’s game against Birmingham. The Barons forced a Game 3 with a win. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

The Montgomery Biscuits fell flat in the second game of the Southern League Championship Series as the Birmingham Barons took a 7-3 victory at Riverwalk Stadium on Tuesday, evening the best-of-three series.

Montgomery (81-61) and Birmingham (84-59) will decide the Southern League championship on Wednesday at Riverwalk Stadium at 6:35 p.m. Montgomery’s TJ Nichols is scheduled to start against Birmingham’s Hagen Smith.

The Biscuits used their ace on Tuesday, 2025 Futures All-Star Game pitcher Brody Hopkins, but Hopkins lasted just 3.2 innings, allowing seven hits and five runs, four earned.

Montgomery manager Kevin Boles would turn to starters Jackson Baumeister in the fourth and Ty Cummings in the sixth, along with Jack Hartman and Antonio Menendez, but all struggled to contain the Barons.

Rikuu Nishida and William Bergolla greeted Hopkins with hard-hit singles back up the middle to open the game and Sam Antonacci followed with a double that careened off the second-base bag before an out was recorded. A throwing error by right fielder Colton Ledbetter on the play allowed Bergolla to score and Antonacci to advance to third, where he later scored on a wild pitch for a 3-0 lead.

The Barons added another run in the fourth when Alec Makarewicz hit a double to right field and continued to third when Ledbetter had trouble getting the ball back to the infield. Calvin Harris followed with an RBI single and Harris scored when Nishida hit a grounder off of Will Simpson’s glove at first base that was ruled a single.

Meanwhile, Barons’ starter Tanner McDougal left the field after the fourth inning with a no-hitter, striking out six in a dominating performance.

Simpson hit a one-out single to left off of reliever Tyler Schweitzer in the fifth to break up the no-hitter and Tatem Levins followed with a double for the Biscuits’ first scoring threat of the evening. Brayden Taylor singled in a run, Gregory Barrios struck out and Noah Myers singled to left field to cut the lead to 5-2. Ledbetter followed with a hard-hit fly to center, but DK Gladney ran it down at the warning track to end the threat.

The Barons extended the lead to 6-2 when Cummings got Nishida to hit a one-out grounder to second base for an apparent double play, but Jadher Areinamo backhanded the throw into left field for an error that allowed Harris to score.

  Montgomery would come back in the sixth, loading the bases with no outs as Homer Bush singled, Areinamo doubled to the left field corner and Cooper Kinney walked off a struggling Lucas Gordon, but Simpson hit into a double play on the next pitch, scoring a run, and Levins struck out.

The Biscuits threatened again in the seventh as Barrios and Myers drew one-out walks, but reliever Caleb Freeman got Ledbetter and Bush to ground out to first base.

The Biscuits retired the Barons in order in the eighth for only the second time all evening, then threatened once more off of Barons’ reliever Adisyn Coffey. A one-out walk to Kinney was followed by a single by Simpson and a walk to Levins to load the bases once again. Once again, the Biscuits couldn’t come up with the clutch hit as Taylor struck out and Barrios popped up.

The Biscuits went 2 for 10 with runners in scoring position between the fifth and eighth innings and failed to reach base in the first four innings or the ninth inning.  

The Biscuits will take the field on Wednesday in search of their first Southern League championship since 2007 against the team that denied them the title in 2024.

2025 SOUTHERN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

SUNDAY

Montgomery 2, Birmingham 1

TUESDAY

Birmingham 7, Montgomery 3

WEDNESDAY

Birmingham (84-59) at Montgomery (81-61), Riverwalk Stadium, 6:35 p.m.

SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIVISIONAL SERIES (Sept. 16-19)

Sept. 16

Montgomery 7, Biloxi 2

Chattanooga 8, Birmingham 6

Sept. 18

Montgomery 4, Biloxi 2

Birmingham 4, Chattanooga 0

Sept. 19

Birmingham 9, Chattanooga 6