Manatees Fall to Tampa in Series Opener

Mitch Ghelfi

The Tampa Yankees took game one of their three-game series at Space Coast Stadium, beating the Brevard County Manatees 9-1 on Tuesday. Yankees starter James Reeves held Brevard County to two hits over his six innings of work, improving his record to 4-1 and lowering his ERA to 1.56.

Cody Ponce started for the Manatees and while he’s been very good in his last handful of starts, it was not his night on Tuesday. Couple that with the poor night the Manatees defense had, committing four errors and your left with a forgettable night at the ballpark.

Ponce (2-3) got the first two outs in the top of the first, but a misplayed ball by Clint Coulter in right field, led to a three-base error for Tampa newcomer Gleyber Torres, who was the main piece NY got for Aroldis Chapman, earlier this week. Torres later scored on a single by Austin Aune.

The tough luck continued for the Manatees in the second inning. First baseman Mitch Ghelfi, who was called up to Brevard County earlier in the day, had a short debut. He attempted to field a ball that was short-hopped over to first by second baseman Wendell Rijo. The ball came up and got Ghelfi in the face and he was removed from the game.

“He should be fine – we’ll see how he is in the morning,” said Manatees manager Joe Ayrault. “It split his eyebrow open, hopefully it doesn’t need a stitch or anything, but his eye is pretty swollen right now.”

Fidel Pena played first the rest of the way and when the game resumed, Thairo Estrada singled, putting runners at first and second. They took the leisurely stroll home moments later, on a home run by Kevin Cornelius. That made it a 4-0 game and Cornelius added an RBI double in the fourth and a single in the fifth, finishing just a triple shy of the cycle.

Clint Coulter

The only run the Manatees scored came in the bottom of the second on a 358-foot home run off the bat of Coulter. That made it 4-1 at the time. Tampa put the game away in the fourth with three straight doubles by Zehner, Estrada and Cornelius and an RBI single by Jorge Mateo. That made it a 7-1

Ponce made it out of the fourth, but he allowed eight hits, seven runs, (six earned). He walked one and struck out three, throwing 75 pitches, 49 for strikes. 

“He was falling behind in counts and left some balls up in the zone,” said Ayrault. “They took advantage of it, just one of those nights.”

Brevard County (10-21, 33-66) gave a couple runs away in the sixth, committing three errors in the frame, including two on one play, against reliever Josh Uhen. That capped the scoring and Uhen was done after two innings. He gave up three hits and two runs, with only one being earned.

Jon Olczak came in behind Uhen and pitched two solid innings of no-hit ball with two strikeouts and Brad Kuntz finished it off in the ninth, picking up one strikeout and not allowing a hit. “I liked the finish with Olczak and Kuntz,” said Ayrault. No hits and no runs for those guys, they threw the ball well.

For more info: Tampa @ Brevard County boxscore

The Manatees managed six hits in the game, with Tampa putting up 11. Estrada and Cornelius had 3-for-nights, with each of them scoring twice and knocking in a run.

Roster moves: As mentioned earlier, Ghelfi was called up from Low-A Wisconsin on Tuesday, to take the place of Manatees leading hitter Dustin DeMuth, who got the call to Double-A Biloxi. “When you’re doing what he’s doing, he showed he’s better than the league,” said Ayrault of DeMuth. “He’s been doing a great job for us manning the three hole. Leading the team in RBIs, home runs and hits, it’s well deserved… him going up.”

The series continues Wednesday, with Freddy Peralta taking the hill for the Manatees. He will be opposed by Domingo Acevedo. First pitch scheduled for 6:35 p.m.

This article originally appeared on 27OutsBaseball.com on 7/26/16