Smokies use long ball to beat Barons

Team hits four home runs in 6-3 victory The Tennessee Smokies took advantage of three home runs in the sixth inning off of Birmingham starter Tyler Lumsden to come away with a 6-3 victory over the Barons on Tuesday afternoon in front of 5,651 young fans at Smokies Park. Smokies’ Jerry Gil, Jamie D’Antona and Phil Avlas all went deep off of Lumsden to take the 6-3 advantage after Birmingham had pulled ahead by a run in the top half of the inning. Second baseman Danny Richar led off the sixth inning with a double to left field before Gil brought him home on his first home run of the 2006 season, a deep blast to left field. Richar finished the afternoon 3-for-4 for the Smokies, raising his average to .336 on the year. After designated hitter Jesus Cota struck out, D’Antona teed off to left field to record his eighth home run of 2006. Over his last five games, D’Antona has collected four home runs and six RBI for Tennessee. Finally Avlas sent a two-out Lumsden offering into the berm chasing the Barons starter from the game after 5.2 innings of work. The Smokies jumped out to a 2-1 lead on Richar’s second home run of the season in the bottom half of the third inning that scored shortstop Alberto Gonzalez who had singled to right field. Starter Garrett Mock was unable to hold the lead, allowing Birmingham to retake the lead in the top-half of the sixth inning on right fielder Thomas Collaro’s RBI single to score Micah Schurstein. Collaro tallied the Baron’s first run of the game on a solo home run in the second inning. Mock was pulled in favor of Matt Wilkinson who worked out of the inning plus one more before turning the ball over to Doug Slaten and Tony Pena in the final two innings to close out the win. Pena recorded his third save of the season for Tennessee. The two teams play the second of three straight 11:30 a.m. start times on Wednesday against Birmingham before returning to a 7:15 p.m. start time for Friday night’s game against Huntsville that will feature fireworks following the game.