Almonte’s Blast Keys Serwinowski’s First Pro Win in 4-2 Triumph

JUPITER, Fla—Ariel Almonte began the scoring with a three-run home run, Adam Serwinowski picked up his first professional victory, and the Daytona Tortugas earned their fifth consecutive victory with a 4-2 victory over the Palm Beach Cardinals at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.

Daytona (15-9) moved into a tie for first place in the FSL East by defeating Palm Beach (14-10) for the third consecutive contest to open the series.

In the top of the first, Daytona struck off Palm Beach starter Jason Savacool. The right-hander issued back-to-back walks with one out in front of Almonte. On a 2-2 pitch, Almonte deposited a hanging slider over the right-field fence for a three-run homer to put Daytona in front 3-0 on his league-leading eighth home run of the season.

On the mound, Serwinowski began his night by retiring the first five batters he faced before Palm Beach stroked a pair of two-out singles in the second. However, the left-hander induced a lineout to end the inning.

With one out in the third, Serwinowski ran intro trouble again, allowing a single, double, and walk to load the bases with one down. Jose Cordoba then lifted a fly ball to right that Esmith Pineda caught and made a strong one-hop throw home, throwing out Sammy Hernandez trying to score from third to keep Palm Beach off the scoreboard.

Daytona then extended the lead in the top of the fourth. With one out, Pineda walked, then went to third when Carlos Sanchez reached on an error. With runners at the corners and one out, Sanchez took off for second and Hernandez elected to throw down. Pineda then took off from third and scored standing up with the throw was mishandled at second, as a steal of home put Daytona in front 4-0.

Palm Beach, though, broke through against Serwinowski in the fourth. With one out, Chase Davis walked, then came all the way home on a double to left by Johnfrank Salazar. Lizandro Espinoza followed with a single to right-center to plate Salazar, slicing the lead in half to 4-2.

Serwinowski (1-0) bounced back to finish the inning, though, then returned for the fifth and set down the side 1-2-3 to finish 5.0 innings for the first time as a professional, allowing two runs on six hits with one walk and two strikeouts, leaving in line for his first professional win.

Daytona had several opportunities to add on to the lead in the later innings as they put two runners on base in each of the sixth, seventh, and eighth frames against Palm Beach’s Ixan Henderson. However, the lefthander escaped all three frames with a zero.

The Tortugas, though, didn’t need any addition runs as Nestor Lorant came on in the sixth and shut down the Palm Beach lineup the rest of the way. After a two-out single in the sixth, Lorant retired the last ten batters he faced, striking out five over 4.0 innings of one-hit ball to secure his second save of the season, and with it, the third win of the series for Daytona.

Daytona and Palm Beach will play game four of the series on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. Daytona will start RHP Ben Brutti (0-1, 4.05), while Palm Beach will counter with LHP Quinn Mathews (2-0, 0.50). First pitch from Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. with pregame coverage on the Tortugas Radio network with Brennan Mense begins at 6:15 p.m.