LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. – Home runs from Jerar Encarnacion and Austin Allen helped the Jumbo Shrimp rally from a pair of deficits in Friday’s season opener, but Jacksonville fell 8-5 to the Gwinnett Stripers on a walk-off homer by Braden Shewmake from Coolray Field.
After Allen tied the score at five in the top of the ninth by homering off Gwinnett (1-0) reliever Ty Tice (1-0), Jacksonville (0-1) reliever Enrique Burgos (0-1) yielded a leadoff single to Josh Fuentes to begin the bottom of the ninth.
After a fly out, a ground out move Fuentes to second. The Jumbo Shrimp intentionally walked Vaughn Grissom and then brought Robert Garcia out of the bullpen, but Shewmake, who had struck out four times in the game, launched a three-run bomb to win it for the Stripers.
Jacksonville initially jumped out in front in their first at-bats of the season. Garrett Hampson led off the first with a base hit before stealing second. After a pair of outs, Encarnacion lined an RBI single to right for to give the Jumbo Shrimp a 1-0 advantage.
The score remained that way until the fourth. Grissom tripled to begin the frame and scored on a sacrifice fly from Jordan Luplow two batters later.
With two outs, Chadwick Tromp singled and Forrest Wall followed with a triple to put Gwinnett in front at 2-1.
The Jumbo Shrimp mounted a two-out rally to regain the lead in the sixth. Xavier Edwards walked and Jordan Groshans singled to set up Encarnacion, who crushed a three-run home run to leap Jacksonville up to a 4-2 advantage.
With the same score, Eli White singled and Grissom walked to begin the eighth. After a strikeout, Luplow drew a free pass to load the bases. Tromp tied the game with a two-run base hit and then Wall legged out a fielder’s choice ground ball to plate Luplow and put the Stripers ahead 5-4.
Jacksonville and Gwinnett meet on Saturday at 6:05 p.m. RHP Chi Chi González (0-0, 0.00 ERA) starts for the Jumbo Shrimp against Stripers RHP Jackson Stephens (0-0, 0.00 ERA).