Aguilera Excellent, but Tortugas Can’t Recover from Early Homer in 4-0 Defeat

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Gabriel Aguilera spun 5.0 excellent innings in relief and Dominic Pitelli recorded his fifth straight multi-hit game, but a big blast in the fourth separated the Palm Beach Cardinals as they took a 4-0 victory over the Daytona Tortugas in front of 2,815 fans on Friday night at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.

Palm Beach (5-2) has now started the series with three wins in four games over Daytona (3-4), who could not ride any momentum from Thursday’s rousing victory.

The first three innings featured very little offense for either side. Jose Montero retired the first seven batters he faced for Daytona before navigating around a pair of one-out singles in the third, inducing a pair of groundouts to keep Palm Beach off the board.

On the other side, though, the Tortugas had no answer for Palm Beach lefty Quinn Mathews. The southpaw struck out five of the first six batters he faced before Pitelli legged out an infield hit to begin the third. He then stole second and went to third on a wild pitch with one out, but back-to-back strikeouts prevented Pitelli from scoring.

In the fourth, Palm Beach struck first against Montero. With one out, a walk and single brought up Chase Davis, who lined an 0-1 offering from the Daytona right-hander over the wall in right-center field for a three-run blast that put the Cardinals ahead 3-0.

Daytona, meanwhile, had no answers for Matthews (1-0), who roared through the fourth and fifth in 1-2-3 fashion. The lefthander went 5.0 innings of one-hit ball for Palm Beach, walking none and striking out 11 batters in earning the victory.

Montero departed after 4.0 innings for Aguilera, who retired his first batter, but then had an error committed behind him to put a man on second. After a walk, Ross Friedrick rolled a base hit up the middle to score Jose Cordoba, pushing the lead to 4-0.

In the sixth, Mathews gave way to Benjamin Arias and Daytona mounted a scoring threat right away. A leadoff walk to Carter Graham was followed by a hit batter, with a second hit batter two batters later loading the bases with one outs. However, the Tortugas couldn’t push across a run, leaving the bases loaded.

An inning later, the Tortugas put together another threat. Ariel Almonte led off the inning with a sharp infield single, then moved to third when Pitelli connected for his second hit, a soft single into shallow center field. On the ensuing throw to third, Pitelli scooted up to second, putting two men in scoring position with one out. Jack Moss followed with a squibber in front of the plate that Arias flipped home to retire Almonte. A pop-out followed as the Tortugas stranded two more runners.

Aguilera did the best he could to keep Daytona in the game, as he bounced back from the unearned fifth-inning tally to retire the side in order in the sixth, seventh, and eighth. The right-hander allowed a one-out hit in the ninth to snap a string of 12 straight batters retired, but he ended his outing by inducing a double play, finishing out a 5.0-inning relief effort with only two hits and an unearned run allowed, with one walk and five strikeouts.

Arias, meanwhile, settled down with a 1-2-3 eighth. An error with one-out in the ninth provided a glimmer of hope for Daytona, but a lineout with the runner in motion led to an easy double play to end the game as Palm Beach claimed their second shutout win of the series.

The Tortugas will play game five of a six-game series against the Palm Beach Cardinals on Saturday night. Daytona will start LHP Adam Serwinowski (0-0, 0.00) against Palm Beach RHP Chen-Wei Lin (0-0, 4.50). Tomorrow is our first giveaway night of the season, with the first 250 kids 12 and under receiving a Tortugas replica kids jersey. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. with gates opening at 5:30. Pregame coverage on the Tortugas Radio network with Brennan Mense begins at 6:20 p.m.