From staff reports

After a strong start to the second half of the Southern League season, the Mississippi Braves are quickly slipping back into the pack.

The Jacksonville Suns banged out four doubles during a six-run seventh inning, including a two-run shot by Mike Stanton, and went on to beat the M-Braves 9-4 on Monday night at Trustmark Park.

The Braves lost their second straight game in the four-game set and fell 3 1/2 games behind the first-place Suns in the Southern League’s South Division. Since starting the second half with a three-game winning streak, the M-Braves have lost nine of their last 11 games.

Jacksonville has scored at least six runs in all three games of this series, which concludes tonight at 7:05 at Trustmark Park.

Monday’s contest was tied at 2-2 until back-to-back doubles by Kevin Randel and Brad Davis put the Suns ahead.

Jacksonville added runs on a sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch, a two-run double to left by Stanton and a two-run single by Randel to take an 8-2 lead.

An RBI single by Lee Mitchell in the top of the ninth stretched the lead to 9-2 before the M-Braves scored two runs on Jason Heyward’s triple in the bottom of the inning.

The Suns had five of their nine hits in the seventh inning. Randel and Scott Cousins each finished with two hits. Heyward went 2-for-5 with three RBIs for the M-Braves, and Concepcion Rodriguez was 3-for-4 with an RBI.

Heyward is hitting .417 (5-for-12), with three extra base hits and five RBIs in three games with the M-Braves since being promoted from Class A Myrtle Beach over the weekend. He was hitting .296 with 12 doubles, 10 home runs and 31 RBIs in 49 games for Myrtle Beach.

In addition to his two-run triple in the ninth inning Monday, Heyward drove in a run with a single in the third.