Freshman Carlos Acuna’s complete game shutout led the Birmingham Patriots to a 1-0 win in the second of a three-game series against the Cleveland Cavaliers Wednesday afternoon.

The Patriots left it late, scoring the only run of the game in the top of the seventh, before getting out of a jam to maintain their undefeated start to West Valley League play. On top of his complete game, Acuna recorded six strikeouts and only faced 16 batters between the second and sixth innings, one above the minimum.

“Every day he impresses me, every time out,” said Patriots head coach Matt Mowry. “He seems to just get better and better. Last week he went eight innings, no runs. Today he went seven innings, no runs. He’s on 15 innings in a row with no runs, so he looks good.”

Birmingham applied all of the pressure in the first two frames, but were unable to capitalize, ending both innings with double play balls. A fired-up Otis Bush would keep a goose egg on the scoreboard through the sixth for Cleveland despite allowing a baserunner in every inning.

“The performance is top notch,” said Cavaliers head coach Peter Gunny. “We played lights out. We made the plays when we had to make them. Otis threw the pitches and hit the locations, kept them off balance. We knew if we just made the plays that we could stick around and have an opportunity to win the game.”

Cleveland got their first leadoff hit of the game through Kaeden Riepl in the bottom of the sixth inning, and, desperate to score the first run, attempted a bunt to advance the runner into scoring position. Right as the ball left his hand, Acuna charged forward to defend against the bunt attempt. The ball caught air after hitting the bat of Miles Garcia, and Acuna laid out to record the out before throwing Riepl out at first.

“He’s a tremendous athlete and also our starting shortstop,” said Mowry. “We don’t expect anything else out of him. He’s a quality player.”

Julius Monroe-Trutt drew a full-count walk for the visitors with two outs in the top of the seventh, and stole second before the home plate umpire charged Bush with a balk to advance him to third. Jordan Lindsay hit a chopper to the shortstop which took an awkward bounce, allowing him to reach base safely and the run to score.

“To play this game and get a bad hop on our shortstop and they get a run out of it, it’s tough, but that’s baseball,” said Gunny.

The Cavaliers threatened in the bottom of the seventh with a leadoff double off the bat of Quinton Riepl. A single with two outs moved Andrew Berumen, who pinch ran for Quinton Riepl, to third, however they could not capitalize and a ground out would close the game.

“They’re a good team, they’re scrappy, they play hard,” said Mowry. “That pitcher looked great today. It’s tough to go on the road two days in a row and play the same team twice at their yard, but my kids battled through and got one more run than they did, and that’s all it comes down to.”

The teams will meet one more time to close the series April 4 at 4:00 p.m. at Birmingham.

“You’ve got to show up, execute and win,” said Gunny. “They’re a good team. Everyone’s kind of chasing their tail right now. But I think we can stand toe-to-toe with anyone in the city, so we’ve got to play a good game and hopefully we come out on top.”