Sports Lowdown

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 ...

Elvis Rubio The Charlotte Stone Crabs and Brevard County Manatees gave fans at Charlotte Sports Park all they could ask for on Sunday, including some free baseball. The Stone Crabs walked off with a 10 inning victory in the series finale, beating the Manatees, 7-6 in 10 innings. It was a see-saw affair throughout, but an RBI single by Jake Cronenworth against reliever Clint Terry, brought Thomas Milone home with the winning run. Milone had tripled to start the inning against Terry, who like all of the Manatees pitchers, struggled with his control in this game. With the win, Charlotte took three of four games from Brevard County in this series. Chase Whitley started the game for Charlotte and was on a pitch count, as he continues his recovery from Tommy John Surgery in 2015. He pitched the first two innings of the game Sunday, before giving way to Steve Ascher in the third.  19-year-old Marcos Diplan got his second start of the season for the Manatees and while he...

DeMuth 16th Inning Home Run A long night at the ballpark ended well for the Brevard County Manatees on Wednesday. Dustin DeMuth came up with one out in the bottom of the 16 th inning and banged one off the batters’ eye, for a game winning solo homer against Travis Ballew, as the Manatees walked off against the Jupiter Hammerheads, 4-3. A game that was one out shy of ending in two hours and five minutes, stretched four hours and 14 minutes, before DeMuth rewarded everyone in the ballpark with his 411-foot blast. “DeMuth has been swinging a great bat for us for a while now,” said Manatees skipper Joe Ayrault. “For him to come up with the big knock, the solo bomb to center was awesome, that was a great win for us.” The Manatees needed a late comeback to even get to the 16 th , with the Hammerheads taking an early lead against Brevard County starter Eric Hanhold. Dexter Kjerstad stepped to the plate with one out in the top of the third and launched a 411-foot homer over the...

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  ...

Jon Perrin The Brevard County Manatees have had a lot of tough losses in the 2016 season and Tuesday’s loss in the series finale at Tampa ranks up toward the top. Vicente Conde, who was the Manatees worst enemy  in a doubleheader sweep  on Monday, put the icing on the cake Tuesday, with a walk-off grand slam against Jon Olczak, leading Tampa to a 5-2 win at George M. Steinbrenner Field.  With the win, Tampa swept the three-game series and improved to 4-2 in the second half and 46-29 overall. The Manatees looked primed to win their first game of the second half and snap a 10-game losing streak. It was not meant to be, as they watched a 2-1 lead disappear with one swing of the bat. The loss erased a good start by Jon Perrin and a great relief appearance by Kender Villegas. Offensively,  Dustin DeMuth reached base all four times for the Manatees but in the end, it didn't matter.  Tampa took the lead in the bottom of the third when Conde, Wes Wi...

Elvis Rubio The Florida State League schedule resumed Monday, following the 2016 All-Star break and the Brevard County Manatees traveled to Florida Auto Exchange Stadium to open a three-game series against the Dunedin Blue Jays.  Jonathan Davis  had a home run in the third and a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth, leading the home nine to a 3-2 victory. Dunedin starting pitcher  Justin Shafer  held the Manatees in check for much of the night and got help from his offense in the early going. After Manatees’ starter  Bubba Derby  got the first out, Davis smacked his 10 th  home run of the season the opposite way and gave the D-Jays a 1-0 lead. Derby gave up two more hits in the inning, but was able to escape further trouble. Dunedin (31-36) added a run in the fourth, which started with a double by Jorge Saez. D.J. Davis grounded out, moving Saez to third. Gunnar Heidt, who was just added to the Dunedin roster prior to the All-S...

Omar Garcia scores winning run The Brevard County Manatees snapped a four-game losing streak in style Saturday night, beating the Fort Myers Miracle 2-1 and sending 4,280 Sea Cows fans home with a smile on their face. “It was a wild finish with a big crowd up there,” said Manatees manager Joe Ayrault. “Front office did a good job, nice fireworks after the game. It’s always nice to get a big win with a big crowd in the stands.” Omar Garcia, who was added to the Brevard County roster earlier in the afternoon, walked to open the 10 th and drew the attention of Miracle reliever Todd Van Steensel immediately. Van Steensel threw over to first numerous times, before he finally threw to the hitter, Elvis Rubio. Garcia got the attention of Van Steensel again, who threw over one too many times. He air-mailed the throw to first and Garcia with his speed, went all the way to third on the play. Rubio had two strikes on him and swung at a ball. Miracle catcher Brian Olson couldn’t ge...