The Savannah Bananas defeated the Macon Bacon, 12-0, in seven innings on Thursday night. Here’s all that went down at Historic Grayson Stadium.

Mercy Rule in Effect

In front of a sold-out crowd of 4,288 fans, the Bananas pounded the Bacon into the dirt for over two and a half hours but decided to be a gracious and merciful host on Thursday night. By CPL rules, a mercy rule goes into effect if the home team is winning by 12 or more runs after seven innings.

That rule went into effect when Bryson Bloomer tattooed the seams off a baseball to right field, scoring Dan Oberst to end the game after seven innings. Even a bit of history was made as that was the first mercy rule for the Bananas at home since the rule went into effect.

Bringing the Thunder in the First Inning

The Bacon are looking to get some momentum going in the second half of the season. The Bananas, being the Most Fun Team in Baseball and the best team in the CPL, obviously had other plans. All it took was a ridiculous first inning for the Nanners to run away with this one.

The Bananas batted around during the first inning. Cole Kitchen recorded two hits alone while Bill Knight was the only hitter in the lineup who failed to get on base during the first inning. Six total Bananas wound up with a hit in that explosive inning. Livan Reinoso brought the thunder with a smoked single to left field with the bases loaded to score two runs to get the Nanners on the board.

Bill, the Heart of BananaLand, Leroy put the dagger in the Bacon when he ripped a double to right field, scoring three runs on the extra-base hit for the veteran Nanner. That moved the score to 7-0 in what was a wild and energetic first inning.

Ty Jackson Embodies Beyonce

There might not be a more electric player than Jackson in Savannah right now. And that’s saying something because this roster is chock full of players ready to entertain at a moment’s notice. Even when he’s not playing, Jackson is still putting on a show for the Banana faithful at Grayson Stadium.

The freshman out of East Georgia State got to partake in his first player dance of the summer, and man was he ready to go. Jackson led the way with Maceo, the dancing first base coach, to “Bootylicious” by Destiny’s Child. He couldn’t have been more excited to make his debut getting down to the classic.

“It was my first time. I’ve been waiting but they haven’t put me on it. Finally, I walk in today, I see my name on the player dance. I said ’bout time,'” Jackson said budding with excitement. “When I heard it was ‘Bootylicious’ I turned it to a different level. My buddy [Nathan] Dettmer, he’s been on plenty of player dances and he’s been going crazy on them, telling me how fun they are. I said, ‘alright, it’s Bootylicious let’s get to it!'”

Sometimes when doing player dances, it helps to get into character. Be a method actor, if you will. With Destiny’s Child, there was only one person Jackson tried to emulate from the group.

“Beyonce. She’s the queen,” Jackson said without hesitation. “I would be her king but Jay-Z’s got that.”

Players of the Game

Five different Bananas recorded a multi-hit night (Cole Kitchen, Eduardo Malinowski, Livan Reinoso, Bryson Bloomer, Bill Leroy) while Malinowski, Reinoso and Leroy all had at least two RBIs. Lefty Ryan Kennedy started for the Nanners on the mound. Because the offense absolutely crushed Bacon pitching, Kennedy didn’t have to go the length of a typical outing.

Even so, he was still nearly untouchable. Kennedy went 4.0 innings pitched allowing three hits, no runs, no walks and striking out five.

What’s Next for the Nanners?

The Bananas are on the road Friday, July 2, to visit the Spartanburgers with first pitch set for 7:00 p.m. ET.