FSL1 Palm Beach Cardinals

Lakeland Home Runs Doom Palm Beach

Published on July 29, 2014 under Florida State League (FSL1)
Palm Beach Cardinals News Release


Jupiter, FL - The Lakeland Flying Tigers clubbed three home runs, including a pair from Connor Harrell, to down the Palm Beach Cardinals 7-1 on Tuesday night at Roger Dean Stadium. The current series is tied 1-1 with two games remaining.

Harrell wasted little time making his presence felt, smacking a Kyle Helisek pitch over the left field wall with one out in the opening frame. The solo shot got the Flying Tigers (10-27, 52-52) on the board, 1-0.

Harrell blasted another bomb off Helisek to lead off the seventh inning. His second long ball of the game capped the scoring at 7-1.

Helisek (5-6) has allowed two home runs or more in each of his last four starts for Palm Beach. The FSL All-Star was roughed up to the tune of seven runs - six earned - on 10 hits over 6.1 innings. He walked three and struck out two while taking the loss for the Cardinals.

Dixon Llorens, who relieved Helisek with one away in the seventh, turned in one of the best outings for a relief pitcher in the league this season. The right-hander tossed the final 2.2 innings of the game, allowed just one hit and one walk, didn't surrender a run, and struck out eight batters.

All eight of the outs he was responsible for were strikeouts - the most for any Palm Beach reliever this season and a career-high for Llorens.

Despite the dazzling display on the mound from Llorens, the Cardinals (25-13, 61-46) couldn't mount a comeback. Their only run in the game came in the third inning. Mason Katz, Greg Miclat and Dante Rosenberg started the inning with three straight singles to push across the run, leveling the score at 1-1. Rosenberg's grounder up the middle scored Katz from second, but the Birds couldn't get anything else going offensively the rest of the night.

The three consecutive hits in the inning were the only three hits for the Cardinals in the game.

Locke St. John (1-2) went six innings, was charged with all three Palm Beach hits and the lone run, walked one and struck out three for the Tigers. The solid effort led to his first winning decision of the season.

Whit Mayberry and Jade Todd finished the game with three perfect innings of relief for Lakeland.

Austin Green broke a 1-1 tie in the fourth inning with a two-run homer off Helisek to give Lakeland the 3-1 advantage. An error by Rosenberg on a throw to second later in the inning resulted in another run for the Flying Tigers to make it 4-1.

Curt Powell drove in two more runs for the Tigers in the fifth inning to extend the Tiger lead to 6-1 before Harrell's second homer of the game in the seventh.

Harrell, Green, and Powell combined to go 7-for-15 with six RBI and four runs to pace the Lakeland offense.

The two teams will do battle again on Wednesday night in game three of the four-game set. The Cardinals will send RH Tyrell Jenkins (4-2, 3.50) to the mound to face RH Tommy Collier (1-1, 8.00) of the Flying Tigers. First pitch will be at 6:35 p.m.

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Florida State League Stories from July 29, 2014


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