Colas, Holland Go Deep Twice, But Walks Doom Pandas

Published on August 15, 2025 under Southern League (SL)
Rocket City Trash Pandas News Release

MADISON, Ala. – After opening the series with back-to-back shutouts, the Rocket City Trash Pandas (14-28, 38-72) dropped a wild one on Thursday night, falling 8-6 to the Knoxville Smokies (20-21, 52-57) at Toyota Field. Despite out-hitting Knoxville 10-6, Rocket City’s downfall came in the form of free passes-seven of the Smokies’ eight runs reached via a walk or hit by pitch.

Starting pitcher Walbert Ureña (L, 4-8) struggled with command from the start, walking the first three batters of the game. He struck out the next two but issued a bases-loaded walk to Reivaj Garcia, forcing in the game’s first run. After 30 pitches (14 strikes), Ureña was lifted for Nick Jones, who surrendered a grand slam to Pablo Aliendo for a quick 5-0 Knoxville lead. Ureña’s final line: 2/3 of an inning, four runs allowed on four walks with two strikeouts.

Oscar Colas quickly put Rocket City on the board with a two-run blast off the right-field scoreboard in the bottom of the first, cutting the deficit to 5-2. But the Smokies added three more in the third inning-again aided by four walks, a hit batsman, and an error-to extend their lead to 8-2.

From there, the Trash Pandas’ bullpen was lights-out. Dylan Phillips, in his second Rocket City outing, allowed just one hit over 3.2 scoreless innings. Camden Minacci followed with two shutout frames, and Roman Phansalkar tossed a scoreless ninth in his Toyota Field debut.

The offense kept chipping away. In the third inning, Colas launched his second homer of the night, a 444-foot shot to right-center for his team-leading 14th of the season (and league-best 13th since May 30). Korey Holland followed with a solo homer to go back-to-back, trimming the lead to 8-5. Holland struck again in the fifth, hitting another solo shot-his first two homers as a Trash Panda and second career multi-homer game, his first since August 20, 2023, with Double-A Akron.

Knoxville’s bullpen held firm over the final four innings. Tyler Santana (W, 4-4) tossed 2.2 scoreless frames for the win, while Brad Deppermann (S, 5) worked a perfect ninth.

The game featured plenty of action-14 runs, 16 hits, four errors, and 16 walks-and lasted 3 hours and 7 minutes.

The Trash Pandas and Smokies meet again on Friday night for game four of a six-game series at Toyota Field. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:35 pm with LHP Sam Aldegheri (6-7, 3.91) making the start for…