Hostetler powers Jumbo Shrimp past Norfolk for fourth straight win
Bennett Hostetler’s first two homers of 2026 drove in four runs as Jacksonville beat Norfolk 9-2 and moved six games over .500.
Bennett Hostetler turned a tie game into a rout with the first two home runs of his 2026 season, and Jacksonville rode that burst to a 9-2 win over Norfolk on Thursday night at VyStar Ballpark. The victory was the Jumbo Shrimp’s fourth straight and pushed them to 27-21, their best mark yet at six games over .500 in front of 6,843 fans in Jacksonville, Florida.
Hostetler, a 28-year-old right-handed catcher from Bozeman, Montana, had entered the game with one home run. He left with two and four RBIs after breaking open a competitive contest in the middle innings. His first shot tied the score at 1-1 in the third inning off Norfolk starter Christian Herberholz, giving Jacksonville an immediate answer after falling behind. By the time the fourth inning ended, the game had swung hard in the Jumbo Shrimp’s favor.
Jacksonville loaded the bases with nobody out in the fourth, then Johnny Olmstead pushed across two runs with a grounder that slipped through Norfolk third baseman Christian Encarnacion-Strand. Two batters later, Hostetler sent a three-run drive out of the park, a swing that made it 6-1 and essentially buried Norfolk. The sequence gave Jacksonville exactly what it has been finding during this surge: a lineup that can change a game quickly once it gets traffic on the bases.
Brandon White supplied the other major storyline in the win. In his Triple-A debut, the 26-year-old right-hander from Olympia, Washington, struck out eight over five innings while allowing only three hits, one walk and one run. White, who was drafted by the Miami Marlins in the 12th round of the 2021 MLB Draft out of Washington State, kept Norfolk quiet long enough for the offense to take control and gave Jacksonville a stable start on a night when the scoreline widened fast.
The result fit the larger shape of Jacksonville’s hot stretch. The Jumbo Shrimp entered the season as the reigning Triple-A national champion and had already claimed the 2025 International League title, their first since 1968. On this night, Hostetler’s power surge and White’s debut combined to add another clean, convincing win to a team that keeps finding new ways to stay in the upper tier of the International League.
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