JP Smith II hit his 11th home run of the season in the Mussels’ win Friday.<\/p>\n
PHOTO PROVIDED<\/p>\n
Fort Myers\u2019 offense silent in late innings, drops series to Lakeland<\/p>\n
FORT MYERS\u00a0\u2013 Ramiro Dominguez and Jake Rucker each homered as the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels were defeated by the Lakeland Flying Tigers by a final score of 4-3 Sunday afternoon at Lee Health Sports Complex.<\/p>\n
High-A rehabber\u00a0Ross Dunn\u00a0made his first rehab appearance with Fort Myers (47-40, 10-12) after making two starts with the FCL Twins earlier this month. Lakeland (42-47, 11-13) third baseman Carson Rucker poked a two-out, two-run single into center field to put the Flying Tigers in front 2-0. Dunn recorded three backwards Ks (batters looking and not swinging) in the inning.<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the first inning,\u00a0Ramiro Dominguez\u00a0smoked a lead-off home run to left-center field to put Fort Myers on the board. Dominguez\u2019s ninth blast of the season left the bat at 104.8 mph. It\u2019s the Mighty Mussels first leadoff home run since\u00a0Dameury Pena\u00a0on June 3, 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jonathan Stevens\u00a0took over in the second and faced the minimum in the frame.<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the second, the Mussels tied the game. After a mid-at bat pitching change to bring Donye Evans on in relief,\u00a0Ricardo Paez\u00a0punched a single into right field to score\u00a0Byron Chourio\u00a0from second base.<\/p>\n
Merit Jones\u00a0relieved Stevens in the third. Jones worked around two singles by the Flying Tigers to preserve the tie, striking out the side.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers took the lead in the third inning. Double-A rehabber\u00a0Jake Rucker\u00a0uncorked a 107.2 mph solo home run to left field to make the score 3-2. He is now hitting .583 (7-for-12) with the Mighty Mussels during his rehab.<\/p>\n
Lakeland rehabber Joe Miller (1-0) worked two scoreless frames, throwing 21 of his 33 pitches for strikes.<\/p>\n
Jones worked three scoreless innings, fanning six Flying Tigers and throwing nearly 75% strikes.<\/p>\n
Triple-A rehabber\u00a0Julian Merryweather\u00a0(0-1) took over in the sixth. Following a dropped pop-up error by\u00a0Harry Genth, Merryweather gave up a two-run home run to Zach MacDonald to put Lakeland in front 4-3. Merryweather struck out two Flying Tigers in the frame.<\/p>\n
Adam Falinski\u00a0relieved Merryweather in the seventh. Falinski worked around a lead-off broken-bat single by Beau Ankeney to strand two and record a scoreless inning.<\/p>\n
In the eighth inning, the Mussels brought\u00a0Billy Oldham\u00a0on in relief. Oldham recorded his first strikeout as a Mussel while stranding a lead-off walk at first base.<\/p>\n
Mike McKenna\u00a0took over in the ninth inning, retiring the side in order.<\/p>\n
Connor Fenlong (S1) locked down the final four innings in relief for Lakeland, earning the save.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers used six reliever in the game. The line of Stevens, Jones, Merryweather, Falinski, Oldham and McKenna combined to throw eight innings, striking out 10 batters and throwing 69% strikes.<\/p>\n
The Mighty Mussels have now dropped three consecutive series and have lost 8 of their last 10 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fort Myers begins a seven-game series in Port St. Lucie against the Mets Tuesday, July 21. The Mighty Mussels Baseball Network will provide audio broadcasts for the first six games of the week. First pitch on Tuesday is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. with coverage beginning at 5:50 p.m.<\/p>\n
Rucker\u2019s four-hit day not enough in loss to Lakeland<\/p>\n
FORT MYERS\u00a0\u2013 The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels were defeated by the Lakeland Flying Tigers by a final score of 7-3 Saturday night at Lee Health Sports Complex.<\/p>\n
Double-A rehabber\u00a0Jake Rucker\u00a0collected four base hits tonight, all coming with two strikes. Rucker had three singles and a double, joining Minnesota Twins No. 1 prospect\u00a0Walker Jenkins\u00a0as the rehabbers to have four hits in a Mighty Mussels\u2019 game this season.<\/p>\n
In 504 minor league contests, J. Rucker now has two four-hit games. The other occurrence was 11 days ago with the FCL Twins on July 9.<\/p>\n
He and his brother Carson Rucker, who batted eighth for the Flying Tigers on Saturday, combined to go 7-for-9 with four extra-base hits and two home runs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really cool to see,\u201d Jake Rucker said postgame. \u201cI was talking with him [Carson] pregame about adjustments, just playing the game and having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fort Myers (47-39, 10-11) tabbed\u00a0Jason Reitz\u00a0(0-2) to make his eighth start of the season. Reitz retired the side in order in the first, with all three outs coming in the air.<\/p>\n
For the third consecutive game, the Mighty Mussels struck in the bottom of the first inning.\u00a0Ramiro Dominguez\u00a0and J. Rucker each singled to open the inning. Two batters later,\u00a0Jayson Bass\u00a0ripped a two-run double down the right-field line to put the Mussels up 2-0.<\/p>\n
Reitz faced the minimum in the second inning despite allowing a leadoff single to Lakeland\u2019s (40-47, 10-13) Nick Dumesnil, who\u00a0Irvin Nunez\u00a0caught trying to steal second base.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the top of the third inning, with two on and two out, All-Star rehabber Gleyber Torres hit an opposite-field three-run home run to put Lakeland in front. Because of an error earlier in the inning, all three runs against Reitz went unearned.<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the inning, Dominguez singled and J. Rucker doubled to set up second and third. Bass drove in his third run of the night on a sacrifice fly and the Mussels tied the game. Bass now has 48 RBI on the season, extending his team lead.<\/p>\n
Lakeland took the lead right back in the top of the fourth, as Jesus Pinto demolished a two-run home run to left-center field to give the Flying Tigers the advantage at 5-3.\u00a0Nick McAuliffe\u00a0took over and stranded a man to keep the deficit at two.<\/p>\n
Major League rehabber\u00a0Garrett Acton\u00a0worked two clean frames across the fifth and sixth innings. Acton threw 21 pitches and struck out one batter.<\/p>\n
Ramiro Villanueva\u00a0took over in the seventh and gave up a lead-off solo home run to C. Rucker, extending Lakeland\u2019s lead to 6-3.<\/p>\n
Yendy Gomez (4-2) worked two solid innings in relief for Lakeland, earning the win.<\/p>\n
Villanueva pitched into the eighth, but was relieved by\u00a0Brent Francisco\u00a0with one out. Aided by the third caught stealing of the night by Nunez, Francisco faced just two in the eighth.<\/p>\n
In the ninth, Francisco gave up a lead-off, opposite-field home run to C. Rucker, his second of the night. For C. Rucker, it was his second multi-home run game of the season. Lakeland hit four home runs tonight, three of them went to the opposite field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Mussels went quietly in the ninth, setting up a rubber match on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Mighty Mussels throw last punch in back-and-forth series opener with Lakeland<\/p>\n
FORT MYERS\u00a0\u2013 JP Smith II drove in three runs and blasted a go-ahead home run as the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels defeated the Lakeland Flying Tigers by a final score of 9-5 Friday at Lee Health Sports Complex.<\/p>\n
In a game that saw the Flying Tigers fight back and force three ties,\u00a0JP Smith\u00a0II\u2019s two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning proved to be the difference in the Mighty Mussels\u2019 win.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers (47-38, 10-10) handed\u00a0Reed Moring\u00a0the ball in their first game out of the All-Star Break. Moring induced a flyout from rehabbing All-Star Gleyber Torres on his way to a 1-2-3 top of the first.<\/p>\n
Ramiro Dominguez\u00a0walked and Double-A rehabber\u00a0Jake Rucker\u00a0singled to begin the bottom of the first against Major League rehabber Burch Smith. Sacrifice flies from\u00a0Luis Fragoza\u00a0and JP Smith II put the Mussels on top 2-0.<\/p>\n
Three consecutive Lakeland (40-47, 9-13) singles to begin the top of the second against Moring tied the game. With two on and two out, Moring induced a flyout from Detroit Tigers No. 7 prospect Jordan Yost to limit the damage and keep the game tied.<\/p>\n
Moring finished with seven strikeouts in 3.2 innings, throwing 49 of his 67 pitches for strikes. With two out in the fourth,\u00a0Callan Fang\u00a0came on and struck out the only man he faced in the frame.<\/p>\n
In the bottom half, Fort Myers took the lead back. With two on and two out,\u00a0Ramiro Dominguez\u00a0lined a run-scoring single off the glove of Yost to bring home\u00a0Byron Chourio.\u00a0Merphy Hernandez, who singled earlier in the frame, scored on a wild pitch during the next at bat. The Mussels took a 4-2 lead to the fifth inning.<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Dominguez drove in Chourio again, lining a ball that deflected off Yost\u2019s mitt, making the score 5-3.<\/p>\n
Fang recorded five strikeouts over 2.2 scoreless innings. After recording one out in the seventh, he gave way to\u00a0Dylan Questad.<\/p>\n
Questad issued two consecutive walks, then Nick Dumesnil smoked a two-run double to right field to make it 5-4.\u00a0Michael Hilker Jr.\u00a0(4-2) was the third Mussel pitcher of the inning, and he allowed the inherited runner to score on a game-tying RBI single by Edian Espinal.<\/p>\n
After\u00a0Luis Fragoza\u00a0reached on a catcher\u2019s interference, Smith paid it off with an opposite-field home run against Jan Caraballo (2-4) to give the Mussels a 7-5 lead. Smith\u2019s 11th of the season travelled 377 feet and left the bat at 103.4 mph.<\/p>\n
Later in the frame, M. Hernandez roped a two-run double into right-center field to double Fort Myers\u2019 lead, making the score 9-5.<\/p>\n
Triple-A rehabber\u00a0Julian Merryweather\u00a0needed just eight pitches to strike out two Flying Tigers and secure the win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JP Smith II hit his 11th home run of the season in the Mussels’ win Friday. PHOTO PROVIDED…\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-346083","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\/346083","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=346083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346083\/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=346083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}