Sports Lowdown

Wendell Rijo The Daytona Tortugas scored seven runs with two outs on Thursday, beating the Brevard County Manatees 10-0 in a rain-shortened, six-plus inning contest. It was the 20 th   loss in 21 games for the Manatees and they fell to 6-40 in the FSL North Division in the second half. Daytona got on the board in the bottom of the third. Shed Long tripled against Manatees starter  Cody Ponce , with two outs.  Gavin LaValley  singled him home and  Aristides Aquino  kept the inning going with a single of his own.  Juan Duran  capped a big inning for Daytona, with a 393-ft. blast, making it 4-0. Blake Trahan ’s RBI double in the fourth made it 5-0 and  Reydel Medina ’s RBI double in the fifth scored Aquino, who tripled one out earlier, giving the home squad a 6-0 lead. Ponce (2-8) was done after giving up six earned runs on nine hits. Obviously, the big blow was the homer by Duran, but the silver lining for Ponce was the eight st...

Cody Ponce Cody Ponce continued his impressive run of good pitching on Wednesday, as he led the Brevard County Manatees to a 1-0 win over the Palm Beach Cardinals at Roger Dean Stadium. The win was the third in a row for the Manatees and they took the series, three games to one. Ponce gave up five hits, pitching one batter into the sixth inning. A walk to Michael Pritchard started that inning and ended the night for Ponce. He earned his second win of the season, giving up five hits, walking three and striking out four. He threw 55 of his 87 pitches for strikes Wednesday and has now had four straight starts of at least five innings. Ponce has 24 strikeouts over that span. Palm Beach had baserunners against Ponce in all five six innings, including two hits in the third inning, but he was helped by his defense and made the right pitches when needed. The Cardinals had their chances, but went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left a total of 11 men on base. Br...

Cody Ponce Fresh off his Florida State League Pitcher of the Week award on Monday, Brevard County Manatees pitcher Cody Ponce was on his game Friday night, getting his first win of the season in a 4-3 triumph over the visiting Jupiter Hammerheads. Ponce (1-2) got off to a great start, striking out the side in the first inning and backing that up with a strikeouts and two fly outs in the second inning. He got some offensive support in the bottom of the second, when the Manatees tallied twice against Jupiter starter Luis Castillo. With one out, Elvis Rubio singled and went to third on a Blake Allemand knock. The throw to third from right fielder John Norwood skipped away, allowing Allemand to cruise into second base. After Dustin Houle walked to load the bases, Jose Cuas drilled one to left, scoring two. The Manatees had first and second and were in prime position to add on, but a strikeout and a ground out put an end to that. “He’s one of the better starters in the l...

Cody Ponce The Brevard County Manatees celebrated the Fourth of July with a 3-0 win over the visiting Dunedin Blue Jays at Space Coast Stadium. The sold out crowd of 5,760 got to see 2015 second round pick Cody Ponce throw five shutout innings and outfielder Corey Ray, drafted No. 5 overall in this years’ draft, drive in the winning run in his professional baseball debut. Ponce got the start and had his most impressive outing of the season, throwing five innings and giving up only two hits. Unfortunately, he left in a scoreless game and did not qualify for the victory. Ponce ended the night with five strikeouts. He one in each of the first three innings and struck out two more in his fifth and final inning of work. “It was an outstanding outing, worked ahead in the count and put hitters away when he needed to,” said Manatees manager Joe Ayrault. It was a solid showing.” Adding to the stellar night for Ponce was the fact that he did not walk a batter and threw 37 of his 6...

Cody Ponce Zach Green hit his second home run against Brevard County in this series and his third in as many nights on Friday, leading the Clearwater Threshers to a 9-2 win over the Manatees, at Space Coast Stadium. Clearwater’s 18 base hits were the most they’ve had in a game this season. Green went 3-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs scored. His home run against Manatees starter Cody Ponce, was a three-run shot in the first inning that traveled 363-feet. “He’s been swinging it well this series,” said Ayrault of Green. “He’s having a good season.” He’s had 11 RBIs in his last three games, two of those against Brevard County and now has 45 for the season. Green’s home run followed three straight Clearwater hits to start the game. Carlos Tocci, Scott Kingery and Mitch Walding singled, with Walding knocking in Tocci with the first run. Green followed with the long ball and left no doubt when it left the bat. When all was said and done, Clearwater sent eight men to the plat...

Cody Ponce After having the series finale against St. Lucie cancelled by rain on Monday and an off day on Tuesday, The Manatees got some great pitching on Wednesday, but the offense struggled when it mattered, hitting into five double plays. The end result was 1-0 loss to the Fort Myers Miracle in game one of the series at Space Coast Stadium. “We scuffled to get the big knock tonight man,” said Manatees manager Joe Ayrault. “We had some situations -- bases loaded in the first and first and third nobody out in the eighth, with a missed sign in there, would’ve scored a run. We gotta do the little things to win ballgames.” Cody Ponce, who has been on the disabled list since April with arm fatigue made the start for Brevard County and pitched very well. Ayrault said on Sunday that Ponce would be on a short leash Wednesday and he was, going two innings in his season debut. Ponce allowed one hit and had two strikeouts in each inning, finishing the night with four. He did...