Wahoos Weekly: Dramatic wins, first-place surge in Blue Wahoos memorable week

In their 10-season history, the Blue Wahoos had never experienced a win quite like the last one.

Their luck with good weather for home games ended Sunday, but not the charmed life this team is experiencing.

In a memorable win from a marathon day, Blue Wahoos centerfielder Victor Victor Mesa completed a four-run rally in the ninth inning with a walkoff hit and 6-5 win Sunday against the Rocket City Trash Pandas – a wowing finish to a game that began five hours earlier and endured a near-three hour, rain delay.

The dramatic finish put an exclamation on a six-game sweep of the Trash Pandas, who entered the week with the best record in the Southern League.

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It was the Blue Wahoos first six-game, series sweep of any opponent since the full-week series format began in 2021 and has zoomed Pensacola into a first-place gap in the league’s South Division.

Yes, it’s a lot to unpack. So, here goes.

“It was unbelievable,” said reliever Colton Hock, who earned the win after pitching out of jam in the top of the ninth to keep the score at 5-2.

“You would think on a Sunday, after playing a bunch of games that the guys are going to be tired, but for three hours (rain delay), we were just loose,” Hock said. “No one expected to go home. I don’t think anyone was thinking what’s next on the schedule.

“That is probably as good of an inning you can have at any level and to cap off a 6-0 week.”

The game Sunday started at 4:08 p.m. but at 5:10 the storm arrived, the Blue Wahoos staff raced to put the tarp on the field and a long wait ensued. The game resumed at 8:05 p.m. and Rocket City appeared head for a series-salvaging victory.

Because it was the series finale and the last meeting between these teams this season, the scenario heightened the importance to wait out the weather and finish the game.

Rocket City extended its lead to 5-1 in the sixth, but the Blue Wahoos got a run back and their bullpen kept the deficit within striking distance for the final inning.

Geoff Conine led off the bottom of the ninth with a double. Cobie Fletcher blooped a single to score Conine. Bubba Hollins coaxed a walk. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch.

With one out, catcher Santiago Chavez laced a two-strike single to score Fletcher-Vance. With pinch-runner Hayden Cantrelle on third, another wild pitch from Rocket reliever Luis Ledo scored the tying run.

With two strikes, Mesa kept battling, got a pitch he squared up and drove it down the right field line for the walk-off win.

The mob of teammates chased him to second and the entire team went all the way to the center field wall to extend a celebration that continued in the team’s clubhouse and likely throughout Sunday night.

"Those are like those sandlot bat games you think about as kids and we get to play those in Double-A and have fun with it. We just have a good team here right now. We've been battling hard. I think guys are getting comfortable in their roles and we're seeing it this week," Hock said.

A quick recap of the entire series with the Trash Pandas, the Los Angeles Angels Double-A affiliate.

May 10 – With the Blue Wahoos trailing 2-1, Geoff Conine laced an eighth-inning pitch with two runners on that eluded Rocket City right fielder Trey Cabbage, then became even grander when a relay throw to third base sailed, leading into a circle-the-bases, three-run hit in the Blue Wahoos dramatic 4-2 win in the series opener.

May 11 – Cody Mincey worked a season-best six innings, allowing just two runs, no earned runs with five strikeouts against one walk and his teammates staked a 4-0 lead in the first inning en route to an 8-2 win.

May 12 – In a game that featured six home runs, the Blue Wahoos unleashed the biggest bombs and held on with their ace closer for a 9-8 win.

Trailing 4-0, the Blue Wahoos erased that deficit with one swing from Ray-Patrick Didder – a grand slam in the second inning, then twice built four-run leads before Colton Hock sealed the win clutch pitching, getting the final three outs with the tying run on base.

Catcher Santiago Chavez hit a 3-run homer and Jerar Encarnacion blasted a 472-foot homer in the game.

May 13 – Eury Perez dazzled again in a pitching duel between two of the top-rated pitchers in Minor League Baseball, working six innings in a 4-2 win.

The Trash Pandas Sam Bachman, the top-rated prospect in the Angels organization, held the Blue Wahoos in check without a hit the first four innings. The Wahoos rallied against Rocket City’s bullpen, highlighted by Thomas Jones’ 2-run homer in the seventh for the deciding runs.

May 14 – Another sellout crowd was treated to another pitching showcase, this time from Zach McCambley, who struck out eight batters and dazzled with six scoreless innings in a 2-1 win. He faced just 22 batters in the game.

May 15 – Victor Victor Mesa had one of his best games in the dramatic win, reaching base three times, highlighted by the walk-off hit. The Blue Wahoos used five pitchers in the game and got scoreless relief from the final three pitchers in the dramatic 6-5 win.

This week

The Blue Wahoos open a six-game road series against the Montgomery Biscuits, who have lost seven consecutive games.

The first game at Montgomery’s Riverwalk Stadium is Tuesday.

The Blue Wahoos will return home next week to begin back-to-back home stands against the Mississippi Braves and the Biloxi Shuckers, both South Division rivals.

The Memorial Day weekend will feature tribute to the U.S. Navy, Naval Air Station-Pensacola and its vast connections in Pensacola with baseball during the wartime eras. The Blue Wahoos will wear Navy uniforms for the May 28 game.

Wahoos Notable

-The Blue Wahoos current six-game win streak matches one of the longest in franchise history. The record is eight games, set in 2017 and headlined by the famous perfect game thrown by Tyler Mahle in Mobile against the former Mobile Bay Bears when Mahle was a rising star in the Cincinnati Reds organization.

-With his nine strikeouts Friday, the Blue Wahoos 19-year-old phenom Eury Perez leads the Southern League in strikeouts with 45 and his strikeout rate is ranked fourth overall in Minor League Baseball.

-The Blue Wahoos were five games back in the South Division on April 19. They now have a three-game lead in first. This season, the league has returned to a past format of awarding first half and second half division winners with playoff berths to meet in post-season in late September.

-Blue Wahoos starting pitchers have thrown the most innings (167) in the Southern League and entered Sunday with the lowest opponent batting average .221.

-Former Blue Wahoos first baseman Lewin Diaz was called back up Sunday to the Miami Marlins. Diaz played in Pensacola in 2019 as a Minnesota Twins prospect.

Southern League Standings

(Prior To May 17 Games)

North Division

Tennessee Smokies – 21-12

Rocket City Trash Pandas -- 18-15

Chattanooga Lookouts -- 17-16

Birmingham Barons -- 13-20

South Division

Pensacola Blue Wahoos 18-15

Biloxi Shuckers -- 16-17

Montgomery Biscuits – 15-18

Mississippi Braves -- 14-19

Bill Vilona is a retired Pensacola News Journal sports columnist and now senior writer for Pensacola Blue Wahoos. He can be reached at bvilona@bluewahoos.com.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Wahoos Weekly: Walk-off caps first-place push for Pensacola Blue Wahoos