The Tennessee Smokies opened up strong to start the second half of the Southern League season. After faltering down the stretch run of the first half, the Smokies have come alive lately. The team has won four of their first five as they attempt to improve on their first half start.
Tennessee took three of four from the Jacksonville Suns at home in the second half opener and then won the first game in a seven game set in Greenville. The first four games of the series are away while the last three will be in Smokies Park.
The Sevierville team opened a stretch of seven straight games against Greenville by blanking the Braves 5-0. Julio Villalon earned his second win in two starts as Tennessee (4-1) opened a four game series at Greenville (1-4) Sunday afternoon at Municipal Stadium. Villalon (2-0) scattered three hits over eight innings and retired 10 straight between the 1st and 4th innings to earn the win. Josh Axelson tossed a scoreless ninth to finish for the Smokies.
Tennessee scored twice in the first inning against Greenville starter Chuck Smith (1-1). Skip Schumaker drew a lead off walk and scored a batter later on a Kevan Burns double. Bucky Jacobsen drove Burns home with a single.The Smokies scored again in the sixth when John Nelson singled and scored on Papo Bolivar’s single.
On Saturday, Yadier Molina singled home Kevan Burns with the winning run in the 11th inning as Tennessee (3-1) topped Jacksonville (1-3) 4-3. Ryan Minor (0-1) loaded the bases in the 11th on a leadoff single by Burns and intentional walks to Bucky Jacobsen and Dan Moylan. Molina’s single was his first hit of the game and gave the Smokies a series win against the Suns. Juan Figueroa (5-2) pitched the final two innings to pick up the win.
Shane Victorino led the game off with a home run against Nick Stocks and Reggie Abercrombie added another long ball in the fifth. The Smokies scored one run in each of the middle innings, including a solo home run from John Nelson in the fifth.
Jacksonville tied the game in the ninth as Mike Lyons was hit for his third blown save of the season. Lyons walked Abercrombie, who stole second. Molina’s throw to second was missed by Caonabo Cosme, and Abercrombie advanced to third on the second baseman’s error. Nick Alvarez hit a sacrifice fly to center to score Abercrombie and send the game into extra innings.
In Friday’s action Rick Ankiel pitched six strong innings but the Smokies’ bats could not come alive against the Jacksonville Suns. Ankiel (1-5) only allowed five hits, two earned runs, and two walks in his six innings while adding five strikeouts. He was out-dueled by Suns starter Joel Hanrahan (7-3), who allowed a run on four hits over six innings to improve to 3-0 over Tennessee.
The Suns picked up a run in the third on a bloop single by Shane Victorino scoring Hanrahan. A solo home run by Nick Alvarez in the fourth made the score 2-0 in favor of the Suns.
Ankiel got the job done at the plate as well, leading off the sixth inning with a double to centerfield. He scored on Kevan Burns’ second double of the night. Burns was stranded as Hanrahan was able to strike out Bucky Jacobsen for the final out. Steve Langone pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Hanrahan and Jason Frasor pitched the ninth for his third save of the season.

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