Former Blue Wahoos' Berry Hits Walk-Off HR As Jacksonville Wins Triple-A Title, Caps Big Year For Marlins System 

In Jacob Berry’s full season in 2024 with the Blue Wahoos, he left impressions with a couple game-sealing homers and an early-season walk-off hit.

But nothing comparable to an all-time memory he produced late Saturday night in Las Vegas.

With one dramatic swing to an epic championship game, the former Blue Wahoos player and LSU star, launched a two-run homer over the right-center wall, lifting the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp to a wild, 8-7 victory against the Las Vegas Aviators in the Triple-A National Championship game

His homer followed an at-bat by Victor Mesa Jr, a member of the Blue Wahoos’ 2023 team, who just missed hitting the walk-off homer before the ball curved foul. He then struck out.

On the first pitch he saw, Berry blasted it.

“I watched Mesa almost walk it off right before me, so my whole mindset was just to get a good pitch to hit and stay short (on swing) on it and it worked out well for me,” Berry said in a post-game interview on the MLB.TV broadcast.

The one-game playoff, staged before a sellout crowd of 10,000-plus at the Las Vegas Ballpark, paired the Jumbo Shrimp, who on Thursday won their first Triple-A title since 1968 as International League champs, against the Aviators, the Pacific Coast League champions.

Seven of the nine players in Jacksonville’s starting lineup had played for the Blue Wahoos.

The Jumbo Shrimp, the Miami Marlins’ Triple-A affiliate, were the home team in this winner-take-all game against the Aviators – the Oakland A’s Triple-A affiliate -- because of their better overall record.

That became pivotal.

After Jacksonville staked a 6-1 lead into the eighth inning, the Aviators got a run in the eighth, then a five-run rally in the top of the ninth to take a lead.

The Aviators’ Bryan Lavastida, smashed one-out, 3-run homer off Robby Snelling, the Blue Wahoos’ 2025 Opening Day starter on April 4, who entered the game as a reliever for the first time in his professional career.

Earlier in the day, Snelling had been honored as the Marlins’ Minor League pitcher of the year. He was throwing on short rest and charged onto the mound with runners on the corners in attempt to close out the game.

He had a lengthy battle with Aviators’ second-baseman Alejo Lopez, who fouled off several pitches, before working into a walk to load the bases. Snelling got the next batter out of a fielder’s choice –registering a career-high 100 mph on his fastball.

Lavastida’s homer ignited a celebration that was short-lived. In the bottom of the ninth Jumbo Shrimp leadoff batter Jack Winkler singled, then Berry followed with his one-out heroics. As the ball came off his bat and towered into the sky, the Jumbo Shrimp bullpen opened the outfield door and began racing onto the field as the ball landed near the swimming pool party deck of the ballpark.

“I don't know if you can really put into words how much all of these guys mean, and the work that they put in from day one,” said Jumbo Shrimp first-year manager David Carpenter. “But to watch guys that have been with us the entire time -- the Jacob Berrys, the Jack Winklers, those types of guys -- to be able to step up in a big game like this, was incredible.”

The championship put a bow on the Jumbo Shrimp’s season and the entire Marlins’ minor league organization. The combined record of all of the Marlins’ affiliates was the best in 17 years.

“Oh my goodness, it starts with my coaching staff with Carp (Carpenter) and just goes down the whole list,” said Berry, speaking on the post-game MLB.TV telecast. “A lot of great guys, they want to win, they want to play together. It’s been really fun. It’s really cool atmosphere the Marlins are building right now.”

The Jumbo Shrimp won the first half International League divisional title and won the deciding game of their best-of-three International League playoff series Thursday night with a 7-4 win against the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RoughRiders, the New York Yankees affiliate.

The Blue Wahoos finished with an even .500 record (69-69) to extend a streak of nine consecutive seasons without a losing record. Many of the players who began the year in Pensacola were part of Jacksonville’s championship run.

The Beloit Sky Carp won the second half of their High-A level Midwest League division and reached the divisional playoffs.

In addition to Snelling being honored by the Marlins, three other Blue Wahoos players – Kemp Alderman, Thomas White and Karson Mildbrandt – were named as Minor League award winners.

Alderman was honored as the Marlins’ player of the year, White was named Pensacola’s Double-A player of the year and Milbrandt, who joined the Blue Wahoos in August from the Sky Carp, was named High-A player of the year.

Berry, 24, the Marlins first-round pick in 2022 and No. 6 overall in that year’s MLB draft, had a breakthrough second half this season, raising his average from as low as .120 to finish at .261 with eight homers and 54 RBI. His .742 OPS (on-base, plus slugging percentage) is the highest of his pro career.

He played 104 games for the Blue Wahoos in 2024 batting .238 with nine homers and 45 RBI. He joined the team in late 2023.

In January of 2024, Berry was part of the Blue Wahoos FishFest and visited children who were patients at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital that day.