Sports Lowdown

Manatees Say Goodbye to Brevard County The final Brevard County Manatees game in franchise history was played Sunday in front of 1,573 fans at Space Coast Stadium in Viera. The game did not end the way the home crowd hoped, with the Manatees falling 6-4 to Daytona. “The fans were awesome and they showed their support all season long,” said Brevard County skipper Joe Ayrault. “No matter what our record was, they came out and supported our boys, they were great.” Daytona (40-28, 76-61) pounded out 15 hits on this night and got started right away, getting on the board in the top of the first, against Manatees starter Bubba Derby.  Blake Trahan  and Shed Long had back-to-back singles to start and  Gavin LaValley  kicked off his big night with a two-run double. Derby (6-13) got out of further trouble in the second inning, despite giving up two more hits. He was able to pick-off Shed Long, keeping Daytona off the board.  Unfortunately, Derby wa...

Phil Bickford For the second straight night , the Brevard County Manatees used a four-run inning to pull ahead and eventually beat the visiting Daytona Tortugas, 5-3. A crowd of 2,530 witnessed the Manatees 40 th  win of the season. Manatees starter  Phil Bickford  gave up a two out, two-run homer to  Aristides Aquino  in the top of the first, but settled down nicely and gave his team 6.1 innings of quality baseball, giving up four hits, three runs (two earned) and walking two. He struck out six, throwing 61 of his 95 pitches for strikes. Brevard County (40-96, 17-51) got one run back in the bottom of the first when leadoff man  Trey York  started things with a triple and came home on a  Mitch Ghelfi  ground out. Daytona starter  Jose Lopez  retired the next two batters, limiting the damage. Daytona threatened a couple times, leaving runners at third in the third and the fifth inning, but each time Bickford go...

Devin Williams The Brevard County Manatees got their last home series of the season off on the right foot, snapping a seven-game losing streak with a 4-3 win over the Daytona Tortugas on Friday. Starting pitcher Devin Williams was impressive for Brevard County, throwing 5.2 innings and picking up his first Advanced-A win. “He’s got good stuff and the way he carries himself, really showed me something,” said Manatees manager Joe Ayrault.  “He’s very confident.” The one inning that Williams ran into trouble was the second. He hit Aristides Aquino and then gave up back-to-back singles to Juan Duran and Reydel Medina, loading the bases. He then proceeded to walk Blake Butler, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead. He bounced back to get Chad Tromp to ground into a run-scoring double play and the final run came home on an error by Mitch Ghelfi at first base, giving Daytona a three-spot. The Manatees (16-51, 39-96) did all their scoring in the bottom of the third, against Da...

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...

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 ...

Blake Allemand Aristides Aquino’s grand slam in the sixth inning of Sunday’s game, propelled the Daytona Tortugas to a 9-3 win over the Brevard County Manatees in the front-end of a home-at-home series at Space Coast Stadium. It was not a good night for Manatees starter Javi Salas, who suffered his third loss since coming back to the Manatees. He gave up four runs in four innings, including walking two and throwing two wild pitches in the first inning. The second of those wild pitches allowed Shed Long to come home with the first run of the game. Salas ended up walking four and striking out four, to go along with the four walks and four hits. He threw 67 pitches, 36 for strikes. The second inning about summed up the tough luck season for the Manatees. Garrett Boulware singled and went to second on a Ty Washington ground out. Avain Rachal then grounded out for the second out of the inning. Jonathan Reynoso singled on a ball that hit the base umpire. Reynoso was safe a...

Corey Ray HR Swing Corey Ray hit his first professional home run Thursday, lifting the Brevard County Manatees to a 4-3 victory over the visiting Daytona Tortugas at Space Coast Stadium. It was quite a turnaround for the home nine, who scored three runs in the seventh inning after being one hit through the first six, by  Daytona starter Jose Lopez, who was making his Florida State League debut. “It’s pretty much typical for us, we get rolling later in ballgames,” said Manatees manager Joe Ayrault. “These guys don’t give up and we’ve had a lot of games like this, just came alive in the seventh inning. Ray led off the bottom of the first with a double and made it to third, before ultimately being stranded. There would not be another Manatees baserunner until Ray walked with two outs in the sixth. Marcos Diplan Daytona (23-15, 59-47) got on the board in the first, helped by Manatees starter Marcos Diplan walking the bases loaded. Gavin LaValley then hit a li...

Zach Hirsch The Daytona Tortugas and Brevard County Manatees returned to the field on Wednesday, after enjoying a day off on Tuesday. The two teams played a doubleheader at Jackie Robinson Ballpark, with the Tortugas taking game one, 12-0 and game two 4-1, sweeping the twin bill. Javi Salas, who was a member of the Manatees starting rotation in 2015, returned from Double-A Biloxi on a rehab assignment, as the game one starter. He struggled mightily in this one, as the Tortugas sent 10 men to the plate and put five runs on the board, in the bottom of the first. Blake Trahan singled and came home on a two-run homer by Shed Long. Salas retired the next two batters, but the next five reached and brought Garrett Boulware to the plate with the bases loaded. He grounded to shortstop Wendell Rijo, who short-hopped the throw past Jose Cuas at first, resulting in two more runs and giving the home nine a 5-0 lead. The second inning was not much better for Salas, who faced nine ...

Dustin DeMuth The Brevard County Manatees managed seven hits in a 12-3 loss to the Daytona Tortugas on Thursday night at Space Coast Stadium. That’s the bad news. The good news, at least from an individual standpoint, was first baseman Dustin DeMuth who went 4-for-4 with a walk, knocking in two of the Manatees three ninth inning runs. “He’s been swinging the bat very well,” said Manatees manager Joe Ayrault. “He’s been our guy manning the three hole for a while, six hits the last two nights and a big night for him. Definitely the highlighter of the game.” Unfortunately, the Manatees offense outside of DeMuth struggled to get things going offensively against Daytona starter Keury Mella. He allowed four hits in his six shutout innings, two of those were to DeMuth. The other knocks came off the bat of George Iskenderian (second inning) and to Clint Coulter, who doubled in the fourth inning. Mella (6-5) did walk four batters, but got through with minimal damage. He struck ou...

Elvis Rubio Walk-Off Homer After losing on a walk-off grand slam  on Tuesday, the Brevard County Manatees were finally on the receiving end of some good fortune on Wednesday, when  Elvis Rubio  drove an Ariel Hernandez pitch over the left field wall, sending the Manatees off with a 7-6 win and sending the crowd at Space Coast Stadium home with smiles on their faces. “That was huge. Rubio’s been swinging the bat well in the four-hole and I had a good vibe about him,” said Manatees skipper Joe Ayrault. “He’s put together some good ABs, had three hits on the night, that being the huge one for us in that ballgame.” Rubio’s three hits led the Manatees 13-hit attack and helped snap an 11-Game losing streak. The victory was the first of the second half for the Manatees, as they improved to 1-6 and 24-51 overall. The way things started, it looked as if the Manatees might have to wait another night to snap the streak, as Daytona put up two runs against  ...