Marauders Eighth Inning Rally Sinks Manatees

Jose Cuas
Jose Cuas
The Brevard County Manatees led 4-3 heading into the bottom of the eighth on Friday night in Bradenton. The Marauders rallied for three runs in the inning and hung on for a 6-4 victory, in the first of a four-game wrap-around weekend series.

Bradenton (44-40) started the night with a run against Brevard County starter Kodi Medeiros, who gave up a single to Chase Simpson and was victimized by a George Iskenderian error, allowing Jordan Luplow to reach and Simpson to go to third. Connor Joe grounded out to short, allowing the run to score.

The Manatees (3-12, 26-57) did all their damage in a four-run fourth inning, getting a lot of help from Bradenton starting pitcher Buddy Borden and reliever Tate Scioneaux. After retiring Elvis Rubio on strikes, Borden hit Clint Coulter with a pitch. Iskenderian walked and Fidel Pena followed with a single, plating Coulter to tie the game.

Jose Cuas followed with his fifth double of the season, scoring Iskenderian and Pena, giving the Manatees a 4-1 lead. Cuas moved to third on a wild pitch and Borden hit Omar Garcia with a pitch, putting runners at the corners. That was the end of the night for Borden, who struggled with his location in the early innings and continued in that direction in the fourth.

Scioneaux replaced him and got off to a rough start. Corey Ray’s sacrifice fly made it 4-1. Blake Allemand and Dustin DeMuth were hit by a pitch in back-to-back at bats, loading the bases. Elvis Rubio flew out, ending the inning. The Manatees had four batters plunked in the frame, all of them with two strikes. They needed a couple more of those to score, but it wasn’t to be.

Bradenton got two runs back in the bottom of the fourth on a home run by Joe, his fourth of the season. It seemed to catch the Bradenton radio crew by surprise when it left the yard, mainly because Coulter made it look like he had a play on it while it was in the air and then turned like he was going to play it off the wall. He was unable to do either of those things, as it sailed out and closed the gap to 4-3.

Kodi Medeiros
Kodi Medeiros
Medeiros did get through five innings, allowing four hits. Only two of the three Bradenton runs were earned and he struck out two and walked two. Medeiros threw a season high 92 pitches, 51 for strikes. Zach Hirsch was called on to pitch in the bottom of the sixth.

Hirsch (0-6) got off to a good start, sending down the first six in order. He ran into trouble in the eighth. Tito Polo and Kevin Kramer singled to start the inning and both moved up on a sac bunt. After an intentional walk to Simpson, 

Manatees manager Joe Ayrault called on Jon Olczak to get out of the jam.

After striking out Luplow, Olczak walked Joe, forcing in the tying run. Michael Suchy then hit a hard grounder to Iskenderian who was able to stop the ball on the infield, but Kramer scored easily and Simpson turned on the jets, scoring ahead of Iskenderian’s throw to the plate. Just like that, on an infield single, the Marauders grabbed a 6-4 lead.
The Manatees luck went from bad to worse in the top of the ninth. Bradenton reliever Nick Neumann gave up a single to Allemand and a double to DeMuth, setting up second and third with nobody out. With Rubio batting, Neumann uncorked a wild pitch that went to the backstop. It caromed right back to catcher Erik Lunde, who fed Neumann and DeMuth was called out on a bang-bang play at the plate.

Ayrault was incensed by the call and argued loudly with the home plate umpire. He was tossed out of the game, but definitely had his say. That call was huge, because with DeMuth at third, Rubio popped out and Coulter flew out, to end the game.

For more info: Brevard County @ Bradenton boxscore

Joe ended up with four RBIs for Bradenton, going 1-for-3 with a walk. Simpson went 2-for-3 with three runs scored. Suchy was 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Allemand was 2-for-3 for the Manatees, while 
DeMuth continued his hot hitting, with another 2-for-4 night. He now has eight hits in his last three games, including a 4-for-4 night against Daytona on Thursday. Cuas finished 2-for-3 with two RBI’s.


Game two of the series is set for Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Cody Ponce (0-2, 4.26 ERA) will start the game for the Manatees.

This article originally appeared on 27OutsBaseball.com on 7/8/16

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