Stone Crabs Earn Wild Walk-Off Win Over Manatees
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| Elvis Rubio |
The Charlotte Stone Crabs and Brevard County Manatees gave
fans at Charlotte Sports Park all they could ask for on Sunday, including some
free baseball. The Stone Crabs walked off with a 10 inning victory in the
series finale, beating the Manatees, 7-6 in 10 innings.
It was a see-saw affair throughout, but an RBI single by
Jake Cronenworth against reliever Clint Terry, brought Thomas Milone home with
the winning run. Milone had tripled to start the inning against Terry, who like
all of the Manatees pitchers, struggled with his control in this game. With the
win, Charlotte took three of four games from Brevard County in this series.
Chase Whitley started the game for Charlotte and was on a
pitch count, as he continues his recovery from Tommy John Surgery in 2015. He
pitched the first two innings of the game Sunday, before giving way to Steve
Ascher in the third.
19-year-old Marcos Diplan got his second start of the season
for the Manatees and while he allowed eight hits and did not retire the Stone
Crabs in order in any of his five innings, he kept his composure.
The first of
those runs came on a sac fly by Grant Kay in the bottom of the first. The
Manatees answered in the top of the fourth. Corey Ray got hit by a pitch and
Wendell Rijo beat out a drag bunt. Dustin DeMuth followed with a single,
loading the bases. Clint Coulter hit a tailor-made double play ball and the
Stone Crabs gave up the tying run to get the outs.
The Manatees (10-20, 33-65) put together a heck of a two out
rally in the bottom of the fourth, scoring four runs and sending nine men to
the plate. After singles by DeMuth and Coulter, Elvis Rubio drilled a two-run
double into the corner, making it a 3-2 game. George Iskenderian plated Rubio
with a double of his own, chasing Ascher from the game, after four straight
hits. Brian Miller came in and threw a wild pitch, moving Iskenderian to third.
He scored one batter later, on an RBI single by Blake Allemand, giving the
visitors a 5-2 lead.
Diplan exited after five, with both of his runs being
earned. He walked just one, while striking out two. 46 of his 77 pitches were
strikes. Both of his strikeouts came on 94-MPH fastballs. Kodi
Medeiros was
called on in relief of Diplan, making his first appearance in 10 days.
Brevard County looked to add to their lead in the seventh,
with Rijo reaching on an error and DeMuth drawing a walk. Miller, who just came
off the disabled list on Saturday, gave way to Nick Sawyer, who got an out
before walking Rubio, to load the bases. Iskenderian came up, but struck out.
Not scoring in that inning would be key, as the Stone Crabs
(16-13, 49-49) began their comeback in the bottom of the seventh, helped by
control issues that plagued Manatees hurlers, the rest of the game. Milone and
Cronenworth drew back-to-back walks and Andrew Velazquez singled in a run, to
make it 5-3. A Joe McCarthy ground out scored another run, closing the gap to
one, 5-4.
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| Dustin Houle |
Manatees’ catcher Dustin Houle ended the inning when he
threw out Velazquez trying to steal. That was Houle’s third runner thrown out
on the day. He batted in the top of the eighth, but with Houle behind the
plate, getting ready to catch the bottom of the eighth, manager Joe Ayrault and
trainer Tommy Craig came out and took a look at Houle’s leg, before deciding to
pull him. No other details were given on his injury.
Medeiros gave up a single before getting a ground ball out
in the eighth. He was yanked, in favor of Preston Gainey. He got Mac James to
fly out, moving a runner to third, but then gave up a game-tying single to Jace
Conrad. Conrad stole second and took third on another steal. Gainey went on to
throw 14 consecutive balls, resulting in three straight walks. With that, the
Stone Crabs took a 6-5 lead.
Mike Franco came in to try to nail down the save in the top
of the ninth, but the Manatees had one more rally in them. Rijo singled ahead
of a DeMuth walk. James attempted pickoff but airmailed the throw, moving both
runners up to second and third. Coulter walked, loading the bases. After Rubio
flied out, Iskenderian beat out a potential double play ball a first, bringing
Rijo in and tying the game, 6-6.
Clint Terry came in to pitch the ninth for the Manatees and
he gave up a single and walked two. Terry threw eight of 10 pitches for balls
and with the bases loaded had to face Cristian Toribio, who inexplicably swung
at the first pitch, popping it up, to end the inning.
Jose Alvarado walked Blake Allemand to start the 10th,
but came back to strike out the side, setting the table for the Stone Crabs 10th.
The triple to Milone and game-winning single to Cronenworth followed, resulting
in Terry’s second loss of the season.
For more info: Brevard
County @ Charlotte boxscore
The Manatees put 11 hits on the board, led by Allemand, who
went 3-for-4 with a walk. Rijo went 2-for-5 with a walk. DeMuth went 2-for-3
with two walks and Coulter was 2-for-4 with a walk. Corey Ray was 0-for-5 in
this game and went 1-for-16 in this four-game series.
This game featured 17 walks, 10 by Manatees pitching. Alec
Sole was the only Charlotte player without a hit, but he did walk once. Velazquez
had himself a 3-for-5 day, while Kay went 3-for-3 with a walk, a run and an
RBI.
Both teams are off on Monday, before Charlotte heads to
Jupiter on Tuesday. The Manatees return home to take on the Tampa Yankees.
This article originally appeared on 27OutsBaseball.com on 7/24/16
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