bring the wood

Trustmark Park celebrates the fifth anniversary of its grand opening today, and the appropriate gift for a fifth anniversary is something in wood. A bat, perhaps, in recognition of all the hits that were banged out on April 18, 2005. In what has turned out to be a pitcher’s park, Montgomery and Mississippi combined for 29 hits in the Biscuits’ 11-6 win in that first game. There were no homers, but we did see three triples and nine doubles. Despite the crushing defeat — the Biscuits also beat the M-Braves in their inaugural game 11 days earlier — there were some memorable moments for the home team. An announced crowd of 7,062 turned out; that’s still one of the park’s largest numbers. Anthony Lerew struck out the first Biscuits hitter. Jonathan Schuerholz singled to start the M-Braves’ first inning, which included a double by Jeff Francoeur, an RBI hit by Scott Thorman and a sac fly by Brian McCann. The M-Braves led 5-4 after four, but the relentless Biscuits, led by Delmon Young and Elijah Dukes, just kept pounding away against the Mississippi arms. Six players in the M-Braves’ starting lineup that day made it to the majors, but only three are still with the Braves organization: McCann, Wes Timmons and Gregor Blanco. The current team returns home to Pearl on Monday. In tribute to that first game five short years ago, buy a mini-bat.