Daytona spoils Manatees’ home opener

Zach Hirsch
An opening day record crowd of 4,897 watched Friday night as the Brevard County Manatees played host to the Daytona Tortugas in the second game of a split home-at-home series. After dropping the opener at Daytona Thursday, the Manatees struggled again in game two and fell by the score of 10-4. 

 “It is always nice to come back to Brevard and see a packed house support us,” said Manatees manager Joe Ayrault. “We had a real good Fan Fest, they came out and watched our workout on Wednesday, wish we would have put on a better show for them tonight.”

 The Tortugas (2-0) got on the board early against Brevard County starter Zach Hirsch. With two outs in the top of the first, Aristides Aquino singled and came home on a double by Angelo Gumbs. Prior to the Aquino single, right fielder Clint Coulter made a great sliding catch in foul territory on a ball hit by Ty Washington. 

 Hirsch got into and out of trouble in the second inning -- which started with George Iskenderian booting a ball at second, allowing Avain Rachal to reach. Rachal would quickly steal second base. One out later, Blake Butler drew a walk, as did Jonathan Reynoso behind him. With the bases loaded, Blake Trahan hit a bouncer to third and Taylor Brennan started an inning ending double play.

 Unfortunately, Hirsch would not be so luck in the third inning. Washington started the frame with a single and he went to second on an error by Brennan at third on a ball hit by Aquino. Gumbs followed with a single, loading the bases. They weren’t loaded for long, as Taylor Sparks laced a double to left, scoring three runs. 

 Rachal added to the misery, with a two-run homer to left, making it 6-0. It was his second homer in two nights. Hirsch finished the inning, but was done after three innings and 50 pitches. He allowed six runs on six hits, with four of the runs being earned. He walked two and struck out one. When you consider the errors behind Hirsch and the fact that he had a lot of 0-2, 1-2 counts on the opposing hitters, his outing looks a lot worse than it was. 

 Unfortunately, as Ayrault said after the game, he had a tough time putting guys away. Josh Uhen was called on to start the fourth.

 Brevard County (0-2) would put together a good inning against Tortugas starter Tyler Mahle in the bottom of the fourth. Dustin DeMuth walked and Clint Coulter was plunked. Iskenderian would follow with a double to the center field gap, scoring two runs. That was the end of the night for Mahle, who was lifted for Seth Varner (1-0). The next two batters were retired before Angel Ortega came through with a single, scoring Iskenderian and cutting the lead in half at 6-3. 

 Unfortunately, that would be as close as the Manatees would get, because Daytona answered back with two more runs in the top of the fifth.

 After getting the first out, Uhen would hit Rachal. He would immediately regret it, as Garrett Boulware stepped to the plate and hit one deep and out over the left field wall, making it an 8-3 game. Uhen would come back to strike out the next two hitters, but the damage had been done and after three innings of work, Uhen was done as well. The Manatees would get one run back in the bottom of the sixth, on a Fidel Pena solo blast to left, again cutting the lead in half at 8-4. Junior Rincon came on to pitch the Manatees seventh and he wasn’t able to solve the Daytona offense either. Blake Butler had a sacrifice fly and Jonathan Reynoso had an RBI double, to cap the scoring.

 For more info: Daytona @ Brevard County boxscore

 The Manatees will look to get into the win column Saturday night when they take on the Tortugas in game three of the series at Jackie Robinson ballpark. Brevard County has yet to name a starter, while Daytona will send Keury Mella to the mound. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.

Story originally appeared on the now defunct Examiner.com on 4/8/16

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FIT Men Push Win Streak to Five

Image
Patrick Anderson - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography The Florida Tech Men’s Basketball team beat Nova Southeastern Saturday, 98-90 and in the process won their fifth straight game and have now won seven out of eight, after two straight losses to start the season. The first half was a back-and-forth affair with Jordan Majors and Patrick Anderson dropping in 12 points apiece. Majors was 4-of-5 from three-point range and Anderson was 2-of-5, leading the Panthers to an 11-of-18 first half, from beyond the arc. “The difference in the game was clearly in two areas,” said Panthers head coach Billy Mims in his postgame interview with Jim Mitchell. “We made 14 threes’ in the game and we’re shooting the ball as well as anybody in the conference,” he said. “We shot 41 percent behind the arc and when you shoot like that, it’s hard to lose games. The other thing that stood out was how well we passed the basketball, talk about a team effort, we had 26 assists and only 13 tur...
Read more

FIT Women Lose Key Game at Lynn

Image
Gracie Doane - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography The Florida Tech women’s basketball team were doomed by a poor third quarter Friday night that saw the Lynn Fighting Knights outscore the Panthers 22-11, en route to a 71-61 Sunshine State Conference victory. The loss was the fourth in a row for Florida Tech. The Panthers troubles started early when leading scorer Shequana Harris was called for a foul two seconds into the contest. She picked up a second foul early and her third, just as the third quarter got underway. When all was said, and done, Harris played three minutes and scored two points. Florida Tech (6-6, 2-4 SSC) held their own early without her, leading 13-12 with 1:23 left in the first quarter, thanks to a layup by Gudlau Juliusdottir before Lynn overtook them, scoring five straight points and leading 17-13 at the end of the first quarter. Lynn (7-4, 2-3 SSC) extended their lead to 23-15 early in the second quarter and were up 27-19 before Gracie D...
Read more

Florida Tech Falls Late Against Adelphi

Image
The Florida Tech Panthers lacrosse team put up a great effort against the ninth ranked Adelphi Panthers on Thursday, losing 10-8 in a tightly contested game. Florida Tech goaltender Daniel Flock stood tall, against a highly skilled Adelphi squad, coming up with nine saves. The Panthers of Florida Tech scored six unanswered goals at one point, turning a 5-2 deficit into an 8-5 lead, but Adelphi scored five straight from about the halfway point of the fourth, to the end of the game and escaped with a victory. Florida Tech (1-1) did a lot of things right on Thursday statistically, winning in shots 37-29 and ground balls 37-31. They were 2-for-5 on the man-up, while AU was 1-for-3 and FIT was successful on 19 of their 20 clear attempts. Unfortunately, they did not win on the scoreboard and that’s the only number that counts. Adelphi (1-0) was led by Nick Racalbuto, who had four goals and Michael Osmundsen who had three, to go along with one assist. The other Racalbuto in ...
Read more