Pena Homer Leads Manatees to Improbable Victory

Fidel Pena
Fidel Pena
The Brevard County Manatees snapped an eight-game losing streak Sunday, thanks to a 7-6 win over the visiting Charlotte Stone Crabs, in one of the wildest games of the season. Brevard County committed four errors on defense and had just four hits, but came away with a much-needed win.

Catcher Fidel Pena was on pace to have a very forgettable night behind the plate, committing two errors on attempted steals and giving up a couple passed ball, as well. All that changed with one swing of the bat in the seventh inning, turning a deficit into a lead and ultimately helping the Manatees snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Things did not start well for Pena or the Manatees, as they found themselves down 5-1 after three innings. Joe McCarthy’s RBI single off of Manatees starter Cody Ponce, scored the first run of the game, with Pena’s passed ball factoring in. Pena helped get that run back in the bottom of the frame, with a one out double. Clint Coulter then reached on an error by shortstop Andrew Velazquez, allowing Pena to score.

Things got downright ugly for Brevard County in the second inning. Jace Conrad singled and stole second, advancing to third on a throw from Pena that sailed into center. Riley Unroe’s RBI single scored him, giving the Stone Crabs a 2-1 lead. Unroe wasted no time swiping second and again, the throw was nowhere near, allowing him to go to third. Cristian Toribio followed with a grounder to second, that Blake Allemand couldn’t handle, resulting in the third consecutive error of the inning and allowing Unroe to score.

Pena also had another passed ball in that inning, but Ponce was able to get out of it, with no further damage. Charlotte tacked on two more runs in the third inning. Ponce walked Joe McCarthy to start things and as you might expect, McCarthy successfully stole second. Grant Kay tried to move him along, bunting the ball back to Ponce. He picked it up and threw wide of first, allowing McCarthy to score and Kay to go to second. A sacrifice fly by Mac James one batter later, made it a 5-1 game.

Meanwhile, Stone Crabs starter Grayson Garvin was cruising, allowing just the Pena double through five innings. He was out of the game after the fifth, despite the one hit, one unearned run, one strikeout effort. Ponce was done after five as well, giving up seven hits, five runs (three earned), one walk and one strikeout.

Clint Terry
Ponce deserved a better fate, but he left down 5-1, much of the damage not of his doing. “Things he’s gotta learn from there,” said Ayrault. “They had a few stolen bases off him early putting themselves in scoring position and a couple errors they took advantage of. He’s just gotta get ahead, stay ahead… there’s a few times he went 0-2 to 3-2, he’s just gotta be more efficient with his pitches but it was good that he got through five innings for us.”

Charlotte (52-52) added a run in the sixth against reliever Clint Terry, on a Toribio RBI single. 

The Manatees (11-25, 34-70) answered in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by Pena, against knuckleballer Jeff Howell. That scored Malik Collymore who walked to start the inning, making it a 5-2 game. Corey Ray had the other Manatees hit in the inning, following Collymore’s walk with a single.

Early on, it was the Manatees who were hurting themselves with errors. In the seventh inning, Charlotte was bitten, in a big way.

Jose Cuas was hit by a pitch to start the inning and came home when Wendell Rijo hit one to short that was mishandled. Both errors likely cost Charlotte a double play, but instead the lead was cut in half. Blake Allemand then hit another ground ball, which was fielded, but Velazquez tried to go to second for the force and his throw was not in time. That loaded the bases and put an end to the night for Howell.

Ian Gibaut came in and gave up an RBI ground out to Ray, allowing Rijo to score, making it a 6-4 game. That brought Pena to the plate and he took the first pitch he saw from Gibaut, out of the yard, giving the Manatees their first lead of the day. A lead they would not relinquish.

For more info: Charlotte @ Brevard County boxscore

Brad Kuntz
Brad Kuntz
“It was good to see the guys stay in it, they kept grinding,” said Ayrault. “To be down 5-1 after three and committing four errors, guys locked it in and got it done when we needed it.”

Terry (1-2) got the win in relief and Brad Kuntz nailed down his fourth save. It was an outstanding outing for Terry,” said Ayrault. “He’s done a nice job in multiple roles for us. Spot starter a few times, long guy, short guy and closed out a few for us. He’s done a nice Job.”

The Manatees will look to earn a split in the series when they wrap it up against the Stone Crabs on Monday. Jon Perrin will take the mound for the Manatees at 6:35 p.m.


 This article originally appeared on 27OutsBaseball.com on 7/31/16

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