FSL1 Charlotte Stone Crabs

Marauders Stun 'Crabs with Three in the Ninth

Published on May 25, 2014 under Florida State League (FSL1)
Charlotte Stone Crabs News Release


BRADENTON, FL (May 25, 2014) - Perhaps the ghosts never left McKechnie Field. Go back to May 7 when the Stone Crabs squandered a 5-2 ninth inning lead, only to watch the Marauders celebrate after four runs in the bottom of the inning gave them a 6-5 victory. History repeated itself once again, and for the second time in less than three weeks, the Stone Crabs gave another game to their division rival. This time, the score was 5-3, but the end result was the same once Jeff Roy's game-winning single off Jose Molina brought in the third and final run.

Bruedlin Suero followed his dominant performance in Lakeland on Tuesday night with another strong start against fellow southpaw Orlando Castro. He picked up two strikeouts in the first, but ran into some problems with the middle of the Marauders lineup in the second. Max Moroff's one out double to the wall in left was quickly followed with an RBI triple from Jonathan Schwind, his first three-base hit of the season. On a 2-2 pitch, D.J, Crumlich lifted a sacrifice fly to left field, and Schwind tagged from third for a 2-0 lead.

Castro, in his fourth appearance against the Stone Crabs, had his best showing against them and retired the first eight hitters he faced without a ball leaving the infield. Marty Gantt's two out double to straightaway center in the third sent Jonathan Quionez to the plate, but he sent a hard one hopper to short to retire the side. Suero would only allow four more singles after the second inning, and departed after getting an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play in the sixth.

The Stone Crabs finally tied the score in the sixth after only picking up two baserunners in the first five frames against Castro. A one out single by Quionez and a double into right by Tommy Coyle put the tying runs in scoring position. A sacrifice fly to right from Leonardo Reginatto made it 2-1, and Patrick Leonard continued his clutch hitting with a double to left to tie it at two.

Bradenton's generally reliable bullpen nearly cost them the game once Josh Smith came in for Castro to start the seventh. A leadoff double by O'Conner and a sacrifice bunt by Hector Guevara came before two walks to Josh Sale and Gantt loaded the bases for the top of the order. Quionez sent a slow grounder to second which forced out Gantt at second base, but Adam Frazier's throw from short skipped into the seats behind first base and Sale scored to make it 4-2. With the bases loaded once again and two outs in the eighth inning, Sale slashed a wicked line drive to Frazier, who dropped it for an error. Reginatto scored from third for a 5-2 lead, but Frazier threw out O'Conner at the plate for the final out.

The Marauders comeback started in the bottom of the eighth once light hitting left fielder Raul Fortunato led off with a solo home run off Parker Markel. Trailing 5-3 with three outs left, the Marauders got scrappy with Jose Molina, whose control eluded him in the ninth. A leadoff single by Moroff and a walk to Schwind set up Crumlich for a sacrifice bunt that got the tying runs into scoring position. Jacob Stallings hit a flyball to right that carried on Quionez, who traveled back only to drop it for Moroff to come in and make it 5-4. Fortunato's bouncing ball to first skipped off Leonard for another error and got Stallings to third after Schwind scored to tie the game. On a 1-1 pitch, Roy rolled a single past the shallow infield into left, and the Marauders celebrated with more late-inning dramatics to split the home-and-home series.

NOTES: This marks just the second time the Stone Crabs have lost a game when leading after the eighth inningthey are now 17-2 in these games, with the Marauders coming back to win both 6-5the teams have split the first 14 meetings, with the home team going 5-2Molina (3-2) blew his third save in four opportunitiesthe Stone Crabs (25-24) failed to get to three games over .500 for the second time, and remain 4.5 games back in the South Division after the Mets lost 4-1 to the Cardinals to snap a six-game winning streakSuero struck out five batters without a walk for the second straight startQuionez made his first appearance in right field this season (51st career appearance) after Andrew Toles was removed from center field with one out in the home secondGantt moved from right to center for the first time this year, with Quionez taking Toles' spot in the orderthe RBI gives Quionez nine in his last nine games, and he later added a double in the ninthToles had a 10-game hitting streak come to an end, while Gantt became the third Stone Crab to reach a 10-game hitting streak.

The Stone Crabs are off for Memorial Day before starting their first eight-game homestand on Tuesday night at 6:30 PM against the league-leading Dunedin Blue Jays. It's $2 Tuesday, and reserved seats are available for just $2! Fans can also get 12 oz. domestic drafts and sodas for only $2 until the end of the 5th inning. There are still great seats available, so visit www.stonecrabsbaseball.com or call 941-206-HITS (4487) to order your tickets now.

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Florida State League Stories from May 25, 2014


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