Columbus Clingstones (ATL) @ Biloxi Shuckers (MIL)
June 17, 2026
HR: Kevin Kilpatrick (COL), David McCabe (COL), Archer Brookman (COL), Andrew Fischer (BLX)
Attendance: 2,608
Time of Game: 2 hours, 57 minutes
Stadium Facts
Location: Biloxi, MS
Opened: 2015
Capacity: 6,098
Level: Double A
League: Southern
Time of Game: 2 hours, 57 minutes
Stadium Facts
Location: Biloxi, MS
Opened: 2015
Capacity: 6,098
Level: Double A
League: Southern
The final week of my trip started with me reaching the furthest point from home of the voyage in Biloxi, Mississippi. What was supposed to be one day without baseball in Biloxi became two as the Tuesday night game got rained out. This was part of a very wet stretch of weather I encountered while on the Gulf Coast. I did not wind up seeing the sun much at all during what turned into three days in Biloxi. I had predetermined that Biloxi and Pensacola would be the two stops on this trip that I was committed to stay until I was able to see a game since neither would have been particularly easy to return to in the future. This was my first time ever in the state of Mississippi, now allowing me to make the claim that I have been to every state east of the Mississippi River. Biloxi is a pretty interesting place. It is a resort and casino city right on the recently renamed Gulf of America. Several casinos line the highway that runs right along the ocean shore. These casinos appear to be the driving force of the local economy. While I didn't do much gambling, it worked out nicely to have indoor entertainment options on these rainy days.
Keesler Federal Park is situated in the shadows of what is probably the most visually impressive of the Biloxi casinos, the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino, which provides a unique and scenic skyline view when looking out beyond the outfield wall in right-center. Once inside the park, I became thankful that they didn't try to play the game the night before because there would have been hardly anywhere to go to avoid the rain within the ballpark's perimeter. There is an open air concourse above the main seating bowl with only the very back of the concourse where the concessions and vendors are located that has cover from the suite level above. I found this to be a curious design choice for a ballpark in a region that I have come to assume is prone to precipitation in the summer months. Virtually all of the seats are on the field level in foul territory, with standard seating stretching most of the way from pole to pole, except for a terrace section down the left field line. There are no fixed seats in the outfield. However, right field features a kids splash zone and a tiki bar surrounded with sand and beach chairs, clearing going for an ocean beach feel out there. The only seats that aren't on the lower level are attached to the suites above the concourse, bookended by party decks on each side. This is a bit of a no frills ballpark, as the modestly sized video board in right field provided the only signage in the entire park that contained game status information, as far as I could tell. With this ballpark situated just a block from the ocean, it was unsurprising, yet quite attention grabbing to see tons of seagulls flocking around the playing field the first few innings. They seemed to migrate elsewhere as the night progressed though. The wind was blowing pretty stiffly off the ocean, in from right field on this night.
After having seen all of the Southern League teams in action the previous week, this second week of Southern League games meant I was seeing both teams for the second time on this trip. In the case of Columbus, this was the second straight game of theirs that I witnessed. They were far more impressive in this game than the one at home a few days earlier. Meanwhile, Biloxi had a few new faces added to the roster just in time for this game. Outfielder Josh Adamczewski and third baseman Andrew Fischer, who are both among the top handful of prospects in the Brewers deep system, made their AA debuts on this night. Both made positive contributions for the Shuckers in this game too, but they didn't get a lot out of the rest of the lineup. Right handed pitcher Tanner Gillis got the start for Biloxi and southpaw Herick Hernandez got the nod for Columbus. Both had fairly pedestrian evenings. Fischer announced his presence quickly leading off the bottom of the second. He lined the third pitch he saw well past the wall in right field, against the wind, for a home run in his first AA plate appearance. That gave the Shuckers an early 1-0 lead. It was erased in the top of the third though. With one out, nine hole hitter Kevin Kilpatrick lined one into the left-centerfield gap for a double, starting a big night for him. A few batters later, David McCabe lined one to right for a single, causing seagulls to scurry and allowing Kilpatrick to score to tie the game. It was the first of three run scoring hits for McCabe on the evening. The Clingstones really started to get to Gillis in the fifth. Kilpatrick crushed a solo home run to left to put Columbus ahead. He would finish the night 4-for-4 with three runs scored and just a triple shy of the cycle. Three batters later, McCabe crushed a two strike offering the opposite way for a two run homer, his 16th long ball of the year, which led the Southern League at that point. It also gave him homers in both games I saw him play on this trip. That put the Clingstones on top 4-1 and ended Gillis' evening. Hernandez wouldn't survive the fifth either. In the bottom half, he walked the bottom two hitters in the Shuckers lineup. Then Adamczewski picked up his first AA hit and RBI with a double off the wall in left-center that scored one. After a pitching change, consensus #1 prospect Jesus Made turned around to hit left handed for the first time in this game and grounded out to first base, scoring another run to cut the Clingstones lead to one. Two more walks followed that, but the Shuckers left the bases loaded and the Clingstones clung to their lead through five. The sixth started with a scary play in which Made and Adamczewski collided on a shallow fly ball to left, which was ruled an error on Made. Both players remained in the game for the time being, but Made was replaced an inning later. He returned to the Biloxi lineup a couple days later. That play led to Columbus scoring an unearned run on a sac fly. The Clingstones added two more in the seventh on a pair of RBI doubles, by Patrick Clohisy and McCabe. McCabe wound up with three hits and four RBIs on the evening. This put Columbus ahead 7-3. Both teams scored single runs in the eighth. In the ninth, Columbus catcher Archer Brookman ended the scoring by hitting a towering home run to left to make it 9-4. The Clingstones scored in each of the final five innings to win this game by five. This was the final week of the Southern League's first half. With the loss, Biloxi's South Division lead over Pensacola was cut to 1/2 game over Pensacola. They would go on to win the division first half crown though, with the game I would see the next night in Pensacola figuring prominently in that title race.
I wound up spending one more day in Biloxi than I had planned, but I can think of worse places to spend extra time. It was a nice start to the homestretch of this trip, leading into a very eventful Thursday a couple hours east in Pensacola.
Next ballpark: Blue Wahoos Stadium in Pensacola, FL
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