Waters, Contreras hit home runs in Gwinnett victory

Drew Waters, William Contreras, Sean Kazmar Jr., and Yolmer Sanchez hit solo home runs as the Gwinnett Stripers (34-35) beat the Norfolk Tides (25-40) 8-1 on Thursday night at Coolray Field.

Waters blasted his sixth homer on the first pitch thrown by former University of Georgia left-hander Kevin Smith to give the Stripers a 1-0 lead in the first inning. The Stripers added three runs in the second inning on an RBI fielder’s choice by Waters and a two-out, two-run single by Cristian Pache to make it 4-0.

Contreras has five home runs and 15 RBIs in his first 11 games with Gwinnett, and has a nine-game hitting streak.

Kazmar Jr. finished 2-for-3 with an RBI single in the third and a solo homer, his seventh, in the eighth. Contreras added his homer in the fifth, and Sanchez capped the scoring with a solo homer in the eighth.

Kazmar Jr. has 649 hits with Gwinnett, passing Damon Hollins (648) for second all-time on the Atlanta Braves Triple-A career hits list.

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