Tortugas Walk-Off Manatees in 12 Innings

With a team losing 82 games, it is hard to pick a loss that is tougher to take than others, but Monday night might have been that game for the Brevard County Manatees. They led Daytona 3-0 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, only to see that lead disappear. The Tortugas struck again with two outs in the 12^th, walking off with a 4-3 victory at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.

Manatees starter Jon Perrin was masterful in his seven innings of work, but his effort was wasted by a bullpen that couldn’t hold the lead. Perrin allowed only three hits, striking out 12 and it looked like he would cruise to his third victory of the year, thanks to the offensive support of Blake Allemand.

A single by Jose Cuas was sandwiched between two strikeouts by Daytona starter Jonathon Crawford. Corey Ray singled and went to second on the throw to third. Both runners were safe, putting runners at second and third. After Mitch Ghelfi was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Allemand singled to center, giving the Manatees a 2-0 lead.

Allemand who had three hits in Sunday’s loss to Daytona at Space Coast Stadium, would get three hits on Monday, including his third home run of the season in the sixth inning, extending the Manatees lead to 3-0. The home run came against reliever Michael Sullivan, who had just finished throwing his warmup pitches, before facing Allemand.

Meanwhile, Perrin was rolling. He gave up a single in the first to Juan Duran and went on to retire 11 in a row, before a double off the bat of Reydel Medina in the sixth inning. Perrin worked around that and gave up his third and final hit of the night in the seventh, a double to Brian O'Grady.

Perrin got through the seventh, but did not return for the eighth. He gave way to Freddy Peralta after seven shutout innings without walking a batter. He threw 62 of his 87 pitches for strikes and the 12 K’s were two shy of tying a career high.

The Manatees (23-47, 37-82) missed a golden opportunity to add to their lead in the top of the eighth, against reliever Nolan Becker. Ray and Ghelfi reached on consecutive throwing errors by the left side of Daytona’s infield. Allemand reached on an infield single, loading the bases. Elvis Rubio hit one to first that was turned into a force at home. With the bases still loaded, David Denson hit into a 3-2-3 double play, getting the home nine out of the inning.

Peralta got through the bottom of the eighth and got the first two outs in the ninth, before the wheels fell off. Duran got an infield hit to keep his team alive and that brought Aristides Aquino to the plate. 

One night after hitting a grand slam against the Manatees, Aquino damaged them again with a laser beam over the left field wall, closing the gap to 3-2. The exit velocity of the home run was 111 MPH, according to the Daytona play-by-play guys. That was the end of the night for Peralta, who gave way to Brad Kuntz.

Kuntz faced O’Grady, who drilled one off the double-tier signage in right field. The Tortugas argued that the ball should have been declared a home run, but lost the argument. It didn’t matter much, as pinch-hitter Gavin LaValley knocked O’Grady home with the tying run and sending the game into extra innings.

Each team had chances in the extra frames, with the Manatees best chance coming in the 11^th. With two outs, Dustin Houle singled and went to second when Jose Cuas took a 90-MPH fastball off his hands. Malik Collymore followed with a single and Houle was homeward bound. That proved costly, as the throw home was waiting for him and he was tagged out to end the inning.

Clint Terry, who was called on to pitch the top of the 11^th for the Manatees, came back out for the 12^th. He struck out the first two batters, before Ty Washington, who had struck out in all five of his previous at bats, singled to keep the inning going. After Shed Long singled him to third, Duran hit a high chopper that went off the glove of Rijo and into the outfield, scoring the winning run.

For more info: Brevard County @ Daytona boxscore

Brevard County will not have a lot of time to dwell on this loss. They return home Tuesday to start a three-game series against the Lakeland Flying Tigers. Cody Ponce (2-4, 3.70) will throw the first pitch at 6:35 p.m. EDT.

This article originally appeared on 27OutsBaseball.com on 8/15/16