LAWRENCEVILLE – Hector Olivera picked up two singles and scored a run in his debut for the Gwinnett Braves (67-58), while right-hander Sugar Ray Marimon carved his way through the Louisville Bats’ (60-66) lineup to lead the G-Braves to a 5-4 win on Thursday at Coolray Field.
Gwinnett remains 3.5 games behind Columbus for the International League Wild Card spot after the Clippers beat Norfolk 5-2 on Thursday. The loss by the Tides pulls the G-Braves to within 5.0 games for the lead in the IL South Division.
After he grounded out to second in his first at-bat, Olivera sparked a Gwinnett rally in the third inning when he drew a one-out walk from Louisville left-handed starter Brandon Finnegan (L, 0-2). Joey Terdoslavich scored Olivera on a double into the left-center gap to give the G-Braves a 3-0 advantage.
Olivera got the first two hits of his G-Braves’ career in his next two at-bats with two singles to left field. He finished the game 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored.
Gwinnett led 5-0 into the ninth inning thanks to Marimon (W, 5-4), who set season highs in innings (7.0) and strikeouts (8) while holding the Bats to two hits and a walk. Right-hander Danny Burawa struck out two batters in a scoreless eighth inning for his G-Braves’ debut, but the Bats mounted a comeback attempt against right-hander Jason Hursh in the ninth.
Hursh allowed a single and a walk and hit a batter to load the bases with none out. Ramon Cabrera brought in the first run with a sacrifice fly to left field, and Kyle Waldrop (1) followed with a three-run home run over the right-field wall to pull the Bats within one run of Gwinnett.
Hursh exited the game after the homer with four runs allowed on two hits, a walk and a hit batsman. Right-hander Ryan Kelly (S, 11) took over, induced a fly-out to left field and struck out Kristopher Negron to end the game.
Daniel Castro led the Gwinnett offense with three singles in his first three at-bats. The first hit came with two outs in the second inning and drove in the G-Braves’ first two runs. His third single scored the first of two runs in the sixth inning against right-handed reliever Donovan Hand, who took over for Finnegan to begin the fifth inning.
Finnegan allowed three runs in his 4.0 innings on five hits, a walk, a wild pitch and a hit batsman. He also struck out three. Hand gave up a pair of runs on three hits and a hit batter in 1.1 innings of relief. Todd Cunningham was the victim of both hit-by-pitches, which lifted his team-high total to 10 on the season.
Right-hander Jose De La Torre gave up a leadoff hit to Cunningham in the eighth but otherwise allowed no damage in his lone inning of work. He came in after Miguel Celestino pitched 1.2 scoreless innings with two hits and a walk allowed.
Castro led all batters, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs. Terdoslavich added a seventh-inning single to go 2-for-4 with an RBI. Cedric Hunter went 1-for-4 to extend his hitting streak to 14 games, which is the longest streak of any Gwinnett batter this season.
Aside from Waldrop’s home run, a double by Juan Silva to lead off the seventh inning was the only extra-base hit for the Bats.
Gwinnett and Louisville will play game two of the four-game series at 7:05 p.m. on Friday at Coolray Field. Right-hander Kanekoa Texeira (6-3, 3.61 ERA) will start for the G-Braves, while righty Michael Lorenzen (3-1, 1.93 ERA) will start for the Bats.
Sunday
May 4th, 2025
6:58PM
