Fort Myers Falls Just Short To Lakeland 4-3

FORT MYERS, Fla. (August 18, 2024) – The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels had the tying run thrown out at the plate in the ninth inning on Sunday as the Lakeland Flying Tigers won the series finale 4-3 at Hammond Stadium.

With Fort Myers (60-49, 29-14) trailing 4–2 in the bottom of the ninth, Jaime Ferrer crushed a double to left to bring the tying run to the plate with one out. Caden Kendle then connected on an opposite field single to set up first and third. Jay Thomason followed with a broken bat single to right. Ferrer scored to make it a 4-3 game, but Kendle was cut down at the plate on the Lakeland (68-43, 26-20) relay. Brandon Winokur was then called upon as a pinch hitter and lined a ball sharply up the middle. Second baseman Cristian Santana made a diving catch to end the game with the tying run aboard.

Fort Myers’ second half lead in the FSL West now sits at 4.0 games with 18 games to go in the regular season.

Ross Dunn was solid in his start as he allowed three runs (two earned) on four hits. The lefty completed five innings for the first time since April 23 and his seven strikeouts were one off matching his season high, which also came in that start.

Lakeland jumped ahead out of the gate on an RBI triple from Jack Penney, who then scored on a Mussels error to make it 2-0 just two batters into the game.

The Mussels responded in the bottom of the first when Ferrer shot a 1-2 pitch from Rayner Castillo (4-1) into the right field corner, plating Billy Amick and Khadim Diaw to tie the game 2-2.

With one out in the fifth, Archer Brookman put the Flying Tigers back in front with a solo home run to left field, making it a 3-2 game. Lakeland added a pivotal insurance run in the seventh as Clayton Campbell doubled and later scored on a wild pitch.

The Mussels return to action on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. for the start of a seven game series in Tampa against the Tarpons.