Only the Gwinnett Stripers are in action to open the week, and coming off of a terrible opening weekend they were in need of a big game in Round Rock. Jim Jarvis gave them a lift in the first inning, and behind good pitching by Lucas Braun they were able to squeak out an extra inning win.
(1-3) Gwinnett Stripers 5, (1-3) Round Rock Express 3
- Nacho Alvarez Jr., 3B: 1-4, BB, .250/.368/.250
- Jim Jarvis, SS: 1-4, HR, .438/.526/.688
- Lucas Braun, SP: 4.2 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 3.86 ERA
- Dylan Dodd, RP: 1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 6.75 ERA
- Rolddy Munoz, RP: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, 0.00 ERA
Jim Jarvis has been on fire to open the season for the Stripers, and he started out the evening with a bang. After running the count full Round Rock’s starter left a fastball over the middle of the plate.
Jarvis didn’t exactly get all of if, muscling it the other way off of the inside of his bat, but he had just enough juice to sneak it over the wall in the left field corner to give Gwinnett the earliest lead.
A couple of batters later Aaron Schunk dropped his barrel on a juicy changeup, and hit a low fly over that same left field wall to double the Stripers lead in the first inning.
With an electric opening inning the Stripers looked like they could be off to the races offensively, but the bats slowed to a crawl for the remainder of the game as they managed only three more hits — all singles — through the next seven innings and went into the ninth needing a run to stay alive. One of those hits came off the bat of Nacho Alvarez, but it wasn’t the most impressive contact. Alvarez got sawed off by an inside fastball, but the second baseman misplayed the soft hit up the middle and had no chance to get Alvarez after. Alvarez’s only decent contact was a hot shot down to third base in the first inning. He got a slider in the zone and hit it hard, but hit it on the ground and wasn’t able to find a hole, getting retired for the first out of the game. Gwinnett finally breathed their next gasp in the ninth just when they needed it most. Jose Azocar slapped a sinking line drive into the gap in right center field, and the ball just eluded the diving effort of the right fielder and rolled past allowing Azocar to motor in with a double.
The game came down to its final out and Gwinnett stalwart Chadwick Tromp, returning after a gap year for his fifth stint with the Stripers. Tromp delivered some two-out fortune, popping a lazy bloop into right field that dove down in front of the defender for an RBI single to tie the game.
Gwinnett did little of their own to make an impact in extra innings, but took advantage of the collective wildness of Round Rock’s relief choices to score two runs. The Stripers were the beneficiary of three walks, a hit batter, and three wild pitches on the way to their scoring output, but weren’t able to extend the lead significantly as Alvarez and two others struck out.
Lucas Braun had a promising debut to the 2026 season, throwing four dominant innings before fading in his final inning and letting up a couple of runs. Braun wasn’t the finest with his pitches — especially his slider — in this outing and lacked the swing-and-miss to produce a high strikeout total, but he controlled the zone well. By peppering the strike zone with his sinker he was able to produce poor contact, with nothing hard hit in the air in the first four innings, and he often found himself ahead early in counts. Braun faded a bit with his command as the outing went on, and though he was able to ramp up a bit in the fifth inning he couldn’t manage to make pitches on the edge of the zone and his cutter in particular became problematic. He got away with a couple early on, save for a weakly hit cutter that dropped for a double, but his final batter of the day ruined his good work. He left a cutter down and over the plate and it got mashed, going for a no-doubt home run that tied the game and chased Braun. Dylan Dodd had an up and down outing. He forced five whiffs on eleven swings and struck out three batters, but also made too many mistakes over the plate. He allowed three hits, all on pitches in the middle of the plate, and got away with some others.
Swing and Misses
Lucas Braun – 7
Dylan Dodd – 5
