PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (May 23, 2019) - The Charlotte Stone Crabs rallied for two runs in the ninth to prolong the ballgame Thursday, but eventually fell 5-4 in 10 innings to the Palm Beach Cardinals at Charlotte Sports Park. Trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth, Stone Crabs (25-22)
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (May 23, 2019) - The Charlotte Stone Crabs rallied for two runs in the ninth to prolong the ballgame Thursday, but eventually fell 5-4 in 10 innings to the Palm Beach Cardinals at Charlotte Sports Park.
Trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth, Stone Crabs (25-22) shortstop Taylor Walls walked before Moises Gomez reached on a fielder's choice. The next batter was Carl Chester , who ripped a single to left to put runners at the corners with one out.
The Cardinals (29-17) then turned to right-hander Bryan Dobzanski (1-0), who immediately allowed an RBI single to Jim Haley which made it 4-3. With men at the corners, Ronaldo Hernandez delivered a pinch hit single to left, which scored Chester to tie the game at four. Haley went first to third on the hit, and Hernandez then stole second to put the tying and go-ahead runs into scoring position. However, Dobzanski struck out the next two batters to send the game to extras.
In the top of the tenth, Palm Beach loaded the bases with one out before Nick Dunn drove in the go-ahead run with an infield single against Mikey York (1-3).
Trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the tenth, Charlotte second baseman Vidal Brujan moved automatic runner Garrett Whitley to third with one out. That's when Dobzanski bared down again, getting a pair of weak groundouts to strand Whitley and end the game.
Stone Crabs right-hander Paul Campbell turned in 6.2 brilliant innings as the "bulk guy" Thursday. Campbell set a season-high with seven strikeouts, allowing only four hits while not walking a single batter.
Charlotte will look to even the series with Palm Beach at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Michael Plassmeyer (1-0, 2.84) has the ball for the Stone Crabs, against Alex Fagalde (5-2, 2.37) of the Cardinals. Coverage starts at 6:15 p.m. on the Stone Crabs Baseball Network.
