Tampa’s Offense Overpowers Manatees
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| Mitch Ghelfi |
Nestor Cortes threw 7.1 perfect innings and the Tampa Yankees
pounded out 19 hits, in an 11-0 win over the Brevard County Manatees in the
opener of a three-game series at Space Coast Stadium.
Every Yankee had a hit Friday night, with six of the nine getting
multiple hits. Devyn Bolasky led the hit parade with a 4-for-5 night, while
Jorge Mateo (3-for-6) and Gleyber Torres (3-for-5) had big nights as well.
“Tip your hat to the guy on the mound and they got a good
squad over there,” said Manatees skipper Joe Ayrault. “They got some guys over
there that can really swing the bat. Some of their top dogs on that squad and
they had a good night tonight.”
Tampa (29-26, 71-53) got on the board in the top of the
first, starting with a single and two walks against Manatees hurler Marcos
Diplan. Trey Amburgey’s sacrifice fly scored the first run of the night. They
got three more in the second inning, highlighted by a two-run single off the
bat of Torres. Diplan had a clean inning in the third and was helped by his
defense in the fourth, when they turned the first of three inning ending double
plays.
Rashad Crawford’s home run in the fifth inning made it 5-0
and was followed by a Torres triple. Diplan buckled down to record three
straight outs, stranding Torres. That would be the end of the night for Diplan,
who gave way to Javi Salas. All five runs were earned for Diplan on seven hits.
He walked three, struck out three and threw 50 of his 85 pitches for strikes.
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| Blake Allemand |
Salas found trouble immediately, giving up three one out
singles to Bolasky, Wes Wilson and Mateo. He got out of the jam when he got
Crawford to ground into a double play, ending the inning. Considering the
Yankees left 14 on base and were 8-for-22 with runners in scoring position, the
double plays definitely kept things from getting even more out of hand, as far
as the score was concerned.
“Our infielders did a good job, turning three double plays,”
said Ayrault. “I was happy to see that.”
The relief was only temporary, as Tampa tacked on three more
in the top of the seventh. Amburgey doubled, Zach Zehner singled and Connor
Spencer walked, loading the bases. Kevin Cornelius then hit a fly ball to
center fielder Corey Ray, that he lost in the lights and watched helplessly as
it fell in front of him, scoring Amburgey with the sixth run. It was not Ray’s
fault by any stretch and was therefore scored a single. He just flat out never
saw it. Bolasky followed with a two-run double, making it 8-0.
The Manatees (14-41, 37-86) were running out of outs and
Cortes was inching toward history. He started the seventh by getting Ray on
strikes and that brought Mitch Ghelfi to the plate. He hit a scorching double to
right that Bolasky went back on, but couldn’t corral. Blake Allemand followed
with a single, but Cortes got Elvis Rubio to ground into a double play, keeping
the shutout in tact.
“Ghelfi’s been swinging a good bat since he got here and it
was good to see him lead it off,” said Ayrault. “Allemand followed it up with a
hit, but we just couldn’t scratch a run across.”
Zehner added an RBI double with one out in the eighth and
Salas was pulled after hitting his second batter in the inning. Kender Villegas
came in and gave up an RBI single to Bolasky, making it a 10-0 game. Salas was
charged with five runs on nine hits in 2.2 innings. He walked one and did not
strikeout a batter. He threw 74 pitches (44 strikes).
Tampa’s final run came in the eighth on a wild pitch.
Brevard County’s final hit came off the bat of
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| Jose Cuas |
For more info: Tampa
@ Brevard County boxscore
The Manatees will try to stop this 10-game losing streak
they are currently mired in on Saturday, when they send Jon Perrin to the mound
for a 6:35 p.m. first pitch.
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