Early Offense Pushes Cardinals Past Mussels 8-1
June 4, 2025 - Florida State League (FSL)
Fort Myers Mighty Mussels News Release
FORT MYERS, Fla. - It was a game of two halves as the Palm Beach Cardinals defeated the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels 8-1 on Wednesday night at the Lee Health Sports Complex.
The contest began 24 minutes after its scheduled start time as the field at Hammond Stadium needed additional prep time following storms throughout the afternoon. It was the first weather affected game of the season for the Mussels (24-29).
Fort Myers allowed eight runs across the second and third innings to fall into an early hole. Mussel pitching then retired 15 consecutive batters across the end of the third through the middle of the seventh, but the offense was unable to mount the comeback against the Cardinals (24-28).
Eli Jones (1-6) retired the first five batters he faced before his start unraveled in the second inning. After two quick outs to begin the frame, six straight Cardinals reached against Jones as Palm Beach jumped ahead to a 5-0 lead. Jones loaded the bases on a walk and a pair of singles. Romtres Cabrera then opened the scoring with a walk. An infield single from Bryce Madron plated the second Cardinal run. Cade McGee ended the outing for Jones with a two-run opposite field double. Ivran Romero got the final out of the inning on just one pitch to Deniel Ortiz.
The early exit snapped a streak of four consecutive starts of at least five innings of work for Jones.
The Cardinals continued their attack in the third inning against Romero, as the first six batters reached safely. Anyelo Encarnacion delivered an infield single with the bases loaded to restart the scoring. Heriberto Caraballo pushed an opposite field single into shallow right field to make it 7-0. The next batter, Cabrera, worked a bases loaded walk for the second time in as many innings, making it 8-0.
The Cardinals had a stretch of 12 out of 13 batters reaching safely across the second and third innings.
Palm Beach starter Brandt Thompson (2-3) struck out a season high seven batters across 5.2 scoreless innings. He allowed just two hits while issuing three walks.
Jakob Hall took over for the middle frames for Fort Myers and threw three perfect innings in his relief outing.
Maddux Houghton led off the bottom of the sixth with a walk. He took second on a wild pitch and was later driven in on a single up the middle from Caleb McNeely to get the Mussels on the board.
Josh Bortka took over on the mound for the seventh and promptly struck out the side in order. He threw 20 of his 23 pitches for strikes across two scoreless frames.
Infielder Peyton Carr tossed the final frame of the nine and put a zero on the board despite allowing three hits as he was assisted by an inning ending double play on a line drive to third.
Game three of the series against the Palm Beach Cardinals is set for 7:05 p.m. on Thursday at Hammond Stadium. Jason Doktorczyk (2-2, 5.35) will toe the rubber for the Mussels opposite Leonel Sequera (0-5, 3.86) for Palm Beach. Coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. on the Mighty Mussels Baseball Network.
Florida State League Stories from June 4, 2025
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