Sports Lowdown

Fidel Pena The Brevard County Manatees and Fort Myers Miracle played two at Space Coast Stadium on Friday and unfortunately for the home team, runs were again hard to come by. The Manatees scored one run in 14 innings of baseball, dropping game one 4-1 and game two, 2-0. All seven of the combined runs came in the first inning of each game. Eric Hanhold has pitched better than his 2-7 record would indicate, but his tough luck continued in game one, as Fort Myers scored all their runs right out of the gate.  Joe Maloney and Edgar Corcino hit back-to-back singles to load the bases with two outs. Chris Paul followed with a line drive to center, knocking home the first two runs. Alex Perez and Logan Wade followed with RBI singles of their own, before Hanhold got Brian Olson to ground out, ending the inning. The Miracle sent nine men to the plate, picking up six hits and plating four runs. “They found the holes and put up the four runs,” said Brevard County manager Joe Ayr...

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...

Kodi Medeiros The Brevard County Manatees finished a four-game series against the Fort Myers Miracle on Thursday and they’ll be very glad to put this one in the rearview mirror. The Miracle struck for three runs in the first inning and never looked back, en route to a 7-2 victory at Hammond Stadium. They also overcame a season high five errors. Brevard County starter Kodi Medeiros made his second start and just didn’t have the control he displayed in his first outing. Tanner English led off the bottom of the first with a home run to left-center field. It was the first home run Medeiros allowed in over 98 innings of work, according to Miracle broadcaster Brice Zimmerman. Alex Swim would reach on an error and move to second on a Trey Vavra single. Chris Paul, making his Miracle debut followed with an RBI double, giving Fort Myers a 2-0 lead and moving Vavra to third. He would score on a Chad Christensen single to make it 3-0.  Clint Coulter...

Angel Ventura The Brevard County Manatees struggled to find their offense on Wednesday, dropping a 3-0 decision to the Fort Myers Miracle at Hammond Stadium. Brevard County managed just three hits in the game, this  following a four hit  performance on Tuesday.  Statistically, it didn’t look good for the Manatees, but they did have their chances, early in the contest.  Clint Coulter started the second inning with a single against Fort Myers starter  Stephen Gonsalves . One out later, Fidel Pena singled and moved up on a Jose Cuas walk, loading the bases. Omar Garcia was next up and hit a slow grounder to second, which was turned into an inning ending double play. The Miracle (4-3) got on the board in the second inning against Manatees righty  Angel Ventura . Trey Vavra started the inning with a hard hit ball to left field, that hit the glove of Brandon Diaz and fell for a double. A Logan Wade groundout moved him to third and he came home on...

Brandon Woodruff On Monday, two runs were enough for the Brevard County Manatees to pick up a win, behind a great pitching performance from Bubba Derby. Tuesday, the Fort Myers Miracle turned the tables, with a 2-1 victory at Hammond Stadium.  Brandon Woodruff  (0-1) was the tough luck loser on this night for the Manatees. He had one bad inning in the bottom of the first frame. Tanner English started things with a single and stole second. He wasn’t there long, as  Chad Christensen  took a hanging slider deep over the centerfield wall, giving his team a 2-0 lead. Fort Myers hurler  Randy Rosario  (1-0) was on his game. He retired the first 16 Brevard County batters he faced, before allowing back-to-back single to Angel Ortega and Brandon Diaz. Omar Garcia struck out and Ortega went to third on a wild pitch. The rally died when George Iskenderian flew out, ending the inning.  Woodruff gave up a single in the sixth, but picked that runn...

Bubba Derby Brevard County Manatees’ hurler Bubba Derby threw 5.2 innings of shutout baseball on Monday, leading his team to a 2-0 shutout victory at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers. Derby was involved in the trade that saw left fielder Khris Davis move from Milwaukee to Oakland in February. Derby did not disappoint in his first start in the Florida State League. He kept the Miracle at bay for much of the night, allowing five hits, all singles. He did not walk a batter and struck out eight. His counterpart  Felix Jorge  was also making his FSL debut and pitched an impressive six innings in the loss. Derby got the only run he would need in the second inning, which started with a  Clint Coulter  walk. One out later, Fidel Pena singled and Blake Allemand followed with a sharp single of his own, scoring Coulter to make it 1-0. Allemand was thrown out at second on the play. Meanwhile, Derby worked his pitches well, mixing off-spee...