Baby Cakes rally to take series opener from Express

METAIRIE – The New Orleans Baby Cakes scored five times in the sixth and seventh innings to rally past the Round Rock Express, 6-3 on Wednesday night.

Trailing 2-1 in the sixth, Eury Perez sparked the comeback with an infield single to lead off and Steve Lombardozzi followed with a single, one of his three hits. Moises Sierra then sent a sharp grounder past first baseman Ronald Guzman for an error to score Perez, and one out later, Cal Towey legged out a potential inning-ending double play to bring in Lombardozzi.

Perez played a large role in extending the lead in the seventh, ripping an RBI double to cash in Peter Mooney’s leadoff walk and later scoring on a wild pitch. Jake Elmore delivered his first hit as a Baby Cake with two outs to stretch the advantage to 6-2.

The ‘Cakes bullpen stepped up with four strong frames after starter Tom Koehler scattered two runs and seven hits in five innings. Koehler struck out the side in the fourth to surpass Elih Villanueva on the franchise’s career strikeout chart with 327.

Kelvin Marte (3-5) worked 2 2/3 innings and fanned three, and Severino Gonzalez recorded the final four outs to notch his third save.

New Orleans snapped a scoreless tie in the fourth on a two-out RBI single by Brian Anderson, who pushed his hitting streak to nine games, tied for the longest by a Baby Cake this season.

Round Rock answered with two in the fifth when Jurickson Profar laced an RBI double, then scored on a single by Willie Calhoun.

Anthony Bass (2-3) was charged with three runs – one earned – on five hits in 5 1/3 innings to take the loss for the Express.

The teams continue the three-game set on Thursday at 7 p.m.