Dunedin Rallies Late to Beat Manatees

Corey Ray
Corey Ray
The Brevard County Manatees struggles continued Thursday, as they let a 2-0 lead slip away in the opening game of a three-game series at Dunedin. The Blue Jays scored twice in the eighth and upended the Manatees, 4-2, sending them to their eighth loss in 11 games.

The Manatees (14-33, 37-78) got off to a good start against Conor Fisk. Corey Ray took him deep and out, over the right-center field wall in the third inning, for his second home run of the season. In the fifth, it was Wendell Rijo, who went deep to right field. He didn’t get all of it, as he hit it off the end of the bat, but the ball carried over the wall and it was a 2-0 lead for the Manatees.

Cody Ponce started for Brevard County and pitched well, despite the Blue Jays getting at least one baserunner into scoring position in five of the six innings he pitched. He was able to work in and out of trouble for the most part, but it finally caught up to him in the fifth, as he was hurt by an error.

With two outs, he walked D.J. Davis, who promptly stole his 20th base of the season. Anthony Alford hit one to shortstop Wendell Rijo, who picked the ball cleanly, but his throw was low to first and Mitch Ghelfi couldn’t dig it out. Alford was credited with a single, but the error allowed the run to score and close the gap to 2-1.

The Blue Jays (30-17, 63-53) tied things up in the sixth, thanks to a leadoff triple by Jonathan Davis. He came home on an RBI ground out off the bat of Ryan McBroom and just that quickly, the game was tied. Ponce got through the inning, but that would be it for him, as he gave way to Javi Salas.

Cody Ponce
Cody Ponce
Ponce went six innings, allowing two runs (one earned) on five hits. He walked one and struck out three, throwing 90 pitches, 60 for strikes. Fisk got the first two outs in the seventh inning, before giving way to Brad Allen. He allowed two runs on five hits, struck out three and did not walk a batter. He also threw 90 pitches, 62 for strikes.

Allen got the final out in the seventh and the first out in the eighth, before giving way to Tim Mayza. He walked Ray to start his night and watched him steal second. For some reason, in a tie game, Ray was given the green light to take third and Mayza came off the mound for the easy play at third. That was pretty much the last threat the Manatees would mount.

Salas (0-2) got the first two outs in the eighth, before surrendering a walk to Matt Dean. Danny Jansen followed with a double that went off the top of the right field wall. He just missed getting it out, but it was enough to score Dean and give the D-Jays a 3-2 lead. They would add a run on an L.B. Dantzler single and that was all she wrote for the Manatees.

For more info: Brevard County @ Dunedin boxscore

The series continues Friday with a 6:30 p.m. EDT first pitch.

This article originally appeared on 27OutsBaseball.com on 8/11/16

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