Mussels’ Win Streak Snapped By Lakeland 4-2

FORT MYERS, Fla. (August 17, 2024) – The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels saw their six game win streak come to a close with a 4-2 loss against the Lakeland Flying Tigers Saturday night at Hammond Stadium.

The Mussels (60-48, 29-14) second half lead in the FSL West now sits at 5.0 games with 19 games left in the regular season.

Mussels’ starter Adrian Bohorquez threw four shutout innings to open the game and struck out four while allowing just one base hit.

In a scoreless game in the fifth inning, Paulshawn Pasqualotto (2-8) was summoned from the bullpen. Clayton Campbell and Ricardo Hurdado opened the frame with back-to-back singles. Cristian Santana then connected on a three-run home run to give Lakeland (66-44, 24-20) its largest lead of the week.

Lakeland starter Hayden Minton (4-4) recorded his longest outing of the season as he shut out the Mussels’ offense for six innings. Minton worked around four hits and two walks and struck out six.

Still a 3-0 game in the seventh, Caden Kendle worked a leadoff walk for Fort Myers. Two batters later, Kaelen Culpepper blasted his first Hammond Stadium home run to cut the deficit to one. The homer had an exit velocity of 103.5 mph.

Lakeland added an insurance run in the ninth on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Hurtado to make it a 4-2 game.

Eiker Huizi then entered for the bottom of the frame. The righty allowed a leadoff single to Kendle but got Culpepper to ground into a game-ending double play to earn his eighth save of the season.

The Mussels return to action on Sunday at 12:05 p.m. Lefty Ross Dunn (1-3, 5.68) starts for Fort Myers while Reynor Castillo (3-1, 2.82) takes the ball for Lakeland. Coverage begins at 11:45 a.m. on the Mighty Mussels Baseball Network.