Barons fail to gain ground

If the Birmingham Barons fail to make the playoffs for the first time in three seasons, they can blame it in part on Matt Craig.

The Barons returned home Tuesday night for a five-game series against the Southern League-leading West Tenn Diamond Jaxx. The night began with Birmingham trailing West Tenn by five games in the Western Division standings with 21 games left in the first half.

The night finished with the Barons still trailing by five games - and the season's first half draining away.

Birmingham won Tuesday's opener 5-4 on Mike Spidale's RBI groundout. But the Barons were bombarded in the nightcap, 13-6. Both games of the doubleheader were seven innings.

Craig, West Tenn's clean-up man, ignited a 16-hit attack as he drove in four runs with a double, triple and home run (his sixth of the season). Craig missed out on hitting for the cycle when he grounded out to end the seventh.

He hardly did the damage alone, however. Leadoff man Dwaine Bacon added a homer and the top four hitters in the West Tenn lineup combined to go 11-for-16 against three Birmingham pitchers.

It could have been worse. Birmingham trailed 13-1 until erupting for five runs in the fifth. West Tenn starter Sean Marshall survived the carnage, allowing 11 hits and six runs, to earn his second win in three decisions.

Birmingham (25-26) remained in fourth place in the division but has three quick chances to make up ground. The Barons host West Tenn (30-21) in another doubleheader tonight before finishing the five-game, three-day series on Thursday.

The Barons will turn to newcomer Eduardo Villacis for help tonight. Villacis was signed by the White Sox as a free agent last week after getting his release from Kansas City. Villacis made one big-league start this season for the Royals at Yankee Stadium.

He'll face West Tenn's Bobby Brownlie (5-3, 2.83 ERA) in the 6 p.m. opener. In the nightcap, Baron Ryan Meaux (2-5, 5.63) will take the mound opposite Jordan Gerk (1-0, 4.05).

Birmingham rallied late in Tuesday's first game, scoring twice in the bottom of the sixth to pull in front. Spidale, who pushed the winning run across, had two hits in the opener and three more in the nightcap.

Starting pitcher Dennis Ulacia sailed through four innings but didn't make it through the fifth. He allowed a single and a walk to open the inning before West Tenn's No. 9 hitter, Ronny Cedeno, deposited a pitch over the left-field wall.