FSL1 Charlotte Stone Crabs

Cardinals Even Series with 6-2 Win

Published on April 12, 2014 under Florida State League (FSL1)
Charlotte Stone Crabs News Release


PORT CHARLOTTE, FL - One of the few bright spots for the Stone Crabs early in the 2014 season was their success against left-handed pitching. Coming into the weekend, the offense was hitting .291 against southpaws compared to just .214 against righties. Yet on Saturday night, they met their match in Kyle Hald, who won his second straight start for the Cardinals with seven strong innings in a 6-2 victory.

Scoreless through one, the Stone Crabs came to the plate in the second after Jeff Ames fanned two in the top of the inning. A couple of infield singles by Marty Gantt and Hector Guevara brought Kes Carter to the plate with one out. One of the main contributors in Friday night's 6-5 victory, the right fielder continued his fine series with an RBI double that bounced into the bullpen in right field for a 1-0 lead. Andrew Toles then walked to load the bases, but Leonardo Reginatto's sinking line drive into right was caught by a sliding Steven Ramos for the third out.

Ames opened the third by surrendering a leadoff single to catcher Jesus Montero. After Ildemaro Vargas grounded out to first to advance Montero to second, Ramos hit a groundball of his own to the third baseman Guevara. He got the out at first, but Patrick Leonard's return throw across the diamond to try and get Montero skipped down the left field line to tie the score.

The run seemed to unnerve Ames just a tad as he opened the fourth with a walk to third baseman Jacob Wilson. After striking out David Washington for the second time, Ames fell victim to the curse of Anthony Garcia, who hit his third home run in as many nights for a 3-1 Cardinals lead. Later in the fifth, the Stone Crabs had to go to the bullpen rather abruptly after Ames left the game with runners at first and second and nobody out. Breyvic Valera then greeted reliever Nicholas Sawyer rather rudely with a two-run double to give Palm Beach a 5-1 lead.

Four runs was more than enough for Hald, who settled in quite nicely with 1-2-3 innings in the third, fifth, and seventh. The fourth inning was his only hiccup after a one out single by Guevara and a fielder's choice groundout by Carter. Hald (2-0) balked Carter to second before walking Tyler Goeddel to put the tying runs on base, but Toles grounded out to retire the side.

Once Sawyer departed following two scoreless innings of middle relief, lefthander Bruedlin Suero came in for the seventh after a rough start in Fort Myers on Wednesday night. His very first pitch was crushed by Vargas for a double down into the left field corner. Two batters later, Nick Martini knocked home an RBI single to make it 6-1. However, Suero showed his best stuff yet by retiring nine of the last 10 hitters he faced, including perfect frames in the eighth and ninth.

Check out the Charlotte Stone Crabs Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Florida State League Stories from April 12, 2014


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central