SL PLAYOFFS: Hopkins, offense spark Biscuits in Game 1 win

Biscuits ace Brody Hopkins pitched five scoreless innings in Montgomery’s Game 1 win over Biloxi on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

History repeated itself on Tuesday as the Montgomery Biscuits defeated the Biloxi Shuckers in convincing fashion in the first game of the best-of-three Southern League Divisional Series.

Last year, the Biscuits used a strong first-game performance to defeat the Shuckers in three games and advance to the Southern League Championship Series. On Tuesday, the Biscuits got off to another solid start, pounding the Shuckers 7-2 in front of a crowd of 4,142 at Riverwalk Stadium on Tuesday night.
The scene now shifts to Biloxi’s MGM Park for the second game of the series on Thursday at 6:35 p.m. Montgomery starter Ty Nichols (4-0, 0.97 ERA) will face Biloxi’s Jaron DeBerry (0-0, 1.04 ERA). A third game, if necessary, will be played on Friday at 6:35 p.m.

The Biscuits shuffled their pitching rotation and went with Brody Hopkins in the divisional opener and Hopkins responded with a five-inning shutout that included seven strikeouts, two walks and three singles.

He ran into trouble in the second inning, walking Brock Wilken and Luke Adams and surrendering a chopper through the infield to Matthew Wood to load the bases with no outs. Hopkins recovered by striking out Zavier Warren looking and Garrett Spain and Eduardo Garcis swinging to keep the game scoreless.

In the bottom of the second, Biloxi starter Brett Wichrowski ran into similar problems, allowing singles to Cooper Kinney and Will Simpson and a walk to Brayden Taylor to load the bases with no outs. Tatem Levins followed with a single down the first-base line to score Kinney but Taylor was caught in a rundown between second and third when Simpson was held up at third.

Simpson later scored on a wild pitch for a 2-0 lead, but Brock Jones and Colton Ledbetter struck out to minimize the damage.

 The Biscuits added three more runs in the fourth on a solo home run by Simpson and RBI singles by Ledbetter and Homer Bush that made it 5-0. Bush added an RBI single on his next at-bat in the sixth and Levins doubled and scored on a Jones’ single in the eighth for a 7-0 lead.

The Biscuits took advantage of five walks by Biloxi pitchers that led to three runs, offsetting the 13 strikeouts by Montgomery batters.

The Shuckers avoided the shutout in the ninth, greeting Montgomery closer Derrick Edington with  back-to-back solo blasts by Luke Adams and Matthew Wood.

Edington has struggled mightily in three of his last four outings. He struck out the side against Knoxville on Saturday, but in the previous two outings and Tuesday, he combined to allow 12 hits and eight earned runs in 3.1 innings.

Tuesday’s win was the fourth Game 1 win in the last five divisional series by the Biscuits, but only once (2024) did they advance to the Southern League Championship Series.

SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIVISIONAL SERIES

Best of three

TUESDAY
Montgomery 7, Biloxi 2

Chattanooga 8, Birmingham 6

THURSDAY

Montgomery (79-60) at Biloxi (74-65), MGM Park, 6:35 p.m. (A third game, if necessary, will follow on Friday at 6:35 p.m.)

Birmingham (81-58) at Chattanooga (74-61), AT&T Field, 6:15 p.m. (A third game, if necessary, will follow on Friday at 6:15 p.m.)

SOUTHERN LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

SUNDAY

Montgomery-Biloxi winner at Chattanooga-Birmingham winner

TUESDAY

Chattanooga-Birmingham winner at Montgomery-Biloxi winner, 6:35 p.m. (A third game, if necessary, will be played at the South Division winner on Wednesday at 6:35 p.m.)