FORT MYERS\u00a0\u2013 The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels defeated the Tampa Tarpons by a final score of 5-3 Sunday afternoon at Lee Health Sports Complex.<\/p>\n
The Mighty Mussels (19-14) continue to start innings off well. After starting seven of eight innings with a baserunner last night, Fort Myers got the leadoff man aboard six times in eight offensive innings Sunday.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers opened the scoring in the first inning on an RBI single from\u00a0Henry Kusiak,\u00a0plating\u00a0Damuery Pena\u00a0who had led off with an infield single three batters earlier.<\/p>\n
Later in the frame,\u00a0Bruin Agbayani\u00a0scored on a wild pitch from Tarpons (15-18) starter and New York Yankees #14 prospect Henry Lalane (0-1), making it 2-0.<\/p>\n
The Mussels added another run in the second, on Pena\u2019s second hit in as many innings, moving the score to 3-0.<\/p>\n
The teams traded runs in the fourth, as a single from Jackson Lovich got Tampa on the board in the top of the frame and an RBI fielder\u2019s choice off the bat of Pena got the run back in the bottom of the inning, moving the score to 4-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mussels\u2019 starter\u00a0Matthew Dalquist\u00a0pitched well in his second outing of the week against Tampa. The Minnesota Twins 18th rounder allowed one run across four innings of work in a game that had a triple digit temperature real feel on the field. On the week, Dalquist allowed two runs in nine innings across his pair of starts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the fifth, an automatic double from Hans Montero put the leadoff man in scoring position. JoJo Jackson followed with a single to make it 4-2 Fort Myers. Mussels\u2019 reliever\u00a0Jonathan Stevens\u00a0then stranded the bases loaded to minimize the damage.<\/p>\n
After loading the bases with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning, Tampa\u2019s Jose M. Rodriguez stranded the bases to keep the score 4-2.<\/p>\n
In the subsequent frame, Santiago Gomez led off with a sharp double to left-center field. Gomez later came into score on a balk by new Fort Myers pitcher\u00a0Brent Francisco\u00a0(2-0).<\/p>\n
The Mussels got two on with no one out in the bottom of the seventh after Kusiak walked and\u00a0Irvin Nunez\u00a0singled. Following a flyout by\u00a0Quentin Young\u00a0that moved Kusiak to third,\u00a0Jayson Bass\u00a0hit a sacrifice fly. This made the score 5-3 Fort Myers.<\/p>\n
In the top of the eighth, Francisco worked a 1-2-3 inning. He struck out five in a row dating back to the seventh, retiring the last six he faced.<\/p>\n
Mike McKenna\u00a0(S2) locked down the win with a scoreless ninth. Fort Myers pitching retired the last nine Tarpons they faced to secure the series split.<\/p>\n
The Mussels hit the road for the next two weeks and begin a series in Bradenton against the Marauders Tuesday night at LECOM Park. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu: More eighth inning magic secures comeback win for Fort Myers<\/p>\n
FORT MYERS\u00a0\u2013 The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels defeated the Tampa Tarpons by a final score of 11-9 Saturday night at the Lee Health Sports Complex.<\/p>\n
For the second time this week, the Mighty Mussels (18-14) rallied in the eighth inning to beat the Tarpons (17-14). Trailing 8-5 entering the bottom of the inning,\u00a0Dameury Pena\u00a0and\u00a0Ramiro Dominguez\u00a0each singled to lead off the frame.<\/p>\n
Yasser Mercedes\u00a0tripled in both runners to make it a one-run game. Two batters later,\u00a0Ryan Sprock\u00a0singled in Mercedes to tie the game at eight.<\/p>\n
Facing a new arm,\u00a0Jayson Bass\u00a0ripped a two-run triple to left-center field to put the Mussels in front 10-8.<\/p>\n
Another run would score on a\u00a0Byron Chourio\u00a0single to make the score 11-9.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers sent 10 men to the plate and struck for six runs in the eighth inning to leapfrog Tampa, after putting up seven runs in the eighth on Thursday to secure the win. Saturday marked the sixth time the Mussels have scored 6+ runs in an inning.<\/p>\n
Minnesota Twins ninth round draft pick\u00a0Justin Mitrovich\u00a0made his Hammond Stadium debut and was solid in his second appearance of the season. The righty allowed an unearned run and racked up four strikeouts across three innings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Following an unearned run in the top of the first, the Mussels sent eight men to the plate in the bottom of the frame. Pena\u00a0led off with a single and Dominguez\u00a0and Mercedes\u00a0each drew walks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After a strikeout by Tampa starter J.T. Etheridge,\u00a0Sprock\u00a0worked a bases loaded walk and tied the game 1-1.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The next batter was\u00a0Quentin Young,\u00a0who worked a full-count before pulling a base hit through the left side of the infield, plating Dominguez and Mercedes to make it 3-1, Fort Myers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the third,\u00a0Henry Kusiak\u00a0led off with a single to center. He took second on a wild pitch and advanced to third on an errant pickoff throw from Greyson Carter. Young then repeated his feat from the first inning, pulling another RBI single through the left side to make it 4-1.<\/p>\n
With three RBI tonight, Young\u2019s total for the series is five. He has two multi-RBI games in the series after having zero in the month of April.<\/p>\n
Tampa responded in its half of the fifth, scoring four runs against\u00a0Brian Zeldin.\u00a0Luis Durango drove a two-run triple into the right-center gap and two batters later Enmanuel Tejeda followed with a two-run double to left-center to make it 5-4, Tampa.<\/p>\n
In the sixth, Tarpons center fielder led off with an infield single. He then stole second before taking third and scoring on a pair of wild pitches from\u00a0Jake Murray, making it 6-4.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sprock reached on a fielding error by Santiago Gomez to lead off the seventh inning. He advanced to third with two outs, then scored on a balk by Tampa righty Brian Arias.<\/p>\n
Looking for a shutdown frame,\u00a0Michael Hilker Jr.\u00a0(2-0) allowed back-to-back baserunners to begin the top of the eighth. A key two-run single by Ediel Rivera extended Tampa\u2019s lead to 8-5.<\/p>\n
The Mussels struck for their six runs in the bottom of the eighth inning off Tampa\u2019s Jose Ledesma (0-2) and Josh Tiedemann. Fort Myers got the leadoff runner on seven out of the eight times they came to bat Saturday night.<\/p>\n
In the top of the ninth,\u00a0Mitch Mueller\u00a0(S2) allowed one run but stranded the tying run at the plate, securing Fort Myers\u2019 second comeback win of the series.<\/p>\n
Mercedes homers again in Mussels loss on Islands Night<\/p>\n
FORT MYERS,\u00a0\u2013 The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels were defeated by the Tampa Tarpons by a final score of 6-2 Friday night at the Lee Health Sports Complex.<\/p>\n
In the seventh inning,\u00a0Yasser Mercedes\u00a0cranked a two-run home run onto the berm in left field. His sixth blast of the year came off the bat at 103 mph and travelled 407 feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mercedes has been on base in 18 of his first 20 games this season, with a scorching .321\/.430\/.628 slash line.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers (17-14) tabbed\u00a0Ramiro Villanueva\u00a0with his third start of the season. Villanueva walked two in the first but was helped out by Tampa\u2019s (15-16) Jackson Lovich being caught stealing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Villanueva left one runner on base in each of his three innings. He threw 56 pitches in the outing, allowing one hit and striking out four.<\/p>\n
Kolten Smith\u00a0(2-3) relieved Villanueva in the fourth inning. Smith navigated around a lead off single by Brando Mayea to strand him at third.<\/p>\n
After allowing a lead off knock in the fifth inning, Smith struck out the next three batters to retire the side and keep the game scoreless.<\/p>\n
In the sixth inning, after a leadoff walk and a double, the Tarpons struck. Engelth Urena ripped an automatic double into left-center field to open the scoring, 2-0 Tampa.<\/p>\n
Later in the frame, still facing Smith, Ediel Rivera drove in a run on a sacrifice fly and Luis Durango singled in another to make it 4-0.<\/p>\n
Bruin Agbayani\u00a0led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a double, snapping a streak of 15 straight retired by Tarpon pitching. That was the second baserunner of the night for Fort Myers, and their first since the second inning.<\/p>\n
After Mercedes\u2019 homer off Brennan Stuprich (1-0), Fort Myers got the first two runners on against new righty Jose Martinez.<\/p>\n
With\u00a0Ramiro Dominguez\u00a0and\u00a0Irvin Nunez\u00a0aboard with no one out, the Mussels failed to drive in either runner. They settled for two in the seventh, making it 4-2 Tampa.<\/p>\n
In the top of the eighth inning, the first two runners got on against\u00a0Xavier Kolhosser. Following two strikeouts, Durango poked a two-run single into right-center field to double the Tarpons\u2019 lead, 6-2.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers did not make any more noise offensively and fell in the fourth game of the series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS\u00a0\u2013 The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels defeated the Tampa Tarpons by a final score of 5-3 Sunday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-266636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}