Looking to avoid a series loss, Mississippi sent Julian Minaya to the mound for his second Frontier League start and first at Trustmark Park after being acquired in a trade with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League on July 31.

Minaya began his outing by walking back-to-back batters as Anthony Brocato and Kyle Edwards both reached via free passes.

Minaya picked up the first out on a popout to third, but Andrew Czech collected the first hit of the evening with an RBI single to open the scoring at 1-0 Washington.

With runners on the corners, Wagner Lagrange grounded a ball to second that Mississippi attempted to turn two on, but the play ended as a fielder’s choice with Lagrange reaching and Edwards scoring to make it 2-0 Wild Things.

Against one of the Frontier League’s top pitchers in Kobe Foster, Brayland Skinner attacked Washington’s starter on his first offering and singled into right field.

Despite the base hit, Mississippi was unable to answer Washington’s first-inning runs and the game remained 2-0.

Minaya rebounded from the first inning and tossed a 1-2-3 second while picking up two strikeouts.

The right-hander followed with another scoreless inning in the third to pitch deeper than either of his previous Mississippi appearances and continued into the fourth, where Minaya allowed traffic on the basepaths but pitched his way out of a situation with two Wild Things aboard.

The Mud Monsters picked up their fourth hit of the day when AJ Fritz led off the bottom of the fourth with a single to extend his hitting streak to eight games.

Despite the hit, Mississippi was silenced and the one-run deficit remained.

Belton remained on the mound with Mississippi’s newfound lead for the sixth and seventh innings and carved through Washington’s lineup, adding two strikeouts across two more scoreless frames.

After being held scoreless by Foster in the sixth, the Mississippi offense made up for it in the bottom of the seventh.

Belton remained on the mound in the top of the eighth and picked up his fourth consecutive scoreless inning of relief to preserve Mississippi’s eight-run advantage.

The right-hander finished his outing with four innings of one-hit baseball, allowing just one walk while striking out three.

After Mississippi’s offense was held scoreless in the bottom of the eighth, Chris Barraza took the mound searching for the final three outs to secure the Mud Monsters’ second victory of the series.

After allowing a leadoff single to Caleb Ketchup, Barraza struck out Ryan Ford for the first out.

The next batter, Isaias Quiroz, singled to put two aboard and set the table for Brocato, who doubled home Ketchup to make it 10-3.

With Quiroz at third and Brocato at second, Edwards grounded out to bring home another run, cutting the Mississippi lead to 10-4 while moving Brocato to third.

With two outs and Connor Peek at the plate after entering earlier as a defensive replacement, Barraza uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Brocato to score and brought Washington within five at 10-5.

A walk to Peek followed, but Barraza recorded the final out to secure the 10-5 Mud Monsters victory.