Confidan Blasts Leadoff Homer in 4-1 Setback

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla—Yerlin Confidan led off the ballgame with his seventh home run of the season, but the Dunedin Blue Jays took control from there and defeated the Daytona Tortugas 4-1 on Friday night at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.

Dunedin (17-16, 51-48) rode a pair of two-run innings to victory, while at the same time holding Daytona (17-15, 48-50) to just four hits.

In his first outing for Daytona since 2019, rehabbing Triple-A right-hander Michael Byrne was sharp making the start. Byrne allowed a one-out infield hit, but erased it with a caught stealing and struck out the other two batters he faced in a scoreless inning.

In the bottom of the first, Daytona immediately jumped out to a quick lead. Confidan connected on Fernando Perez’s first pitch and ripped it 111 MPH to right for a solo homer, putting Daytona up 1-0 on the 400-foot blast.

Ben Brutti then entered to begin the second and erased a leadoff walk with a double play, before working around a two-out error. In the third, he settled down with a 1-2-3 inning.

In the fourth, though, the Blue Jays struck. With one out, Aaron Parker jumped on an 0-2 slider from Brutti and crushed it 425 feet out to left-center to tie the game. Edward Duran followed with a single, moved to second on a walk, then to third on a fielder’s choice. With two outs, Braden Barry rolled a single to left to score Duran, putting Dunedin in front 2-1.

After the home run, the Tortugas did little in the first five innings, but in the sixth came to life against reliever Kevin Miranda. Carlos Sanchez led off with a walk and moved to second on a Sammy Stafura single. Miranda retired the next two men before walking Connor Burns to load the bases. However, he induced a groundout to end the inning and keep the score 2-1.

Meanwhile, the Daytona pitching staff kept the squad in the game. Brutti bounced back from his two-run fourth to work a scoreless fifth to end his 4.0 innings of work. Graham Osman then came on and was excellent in his first three innings, allowing only a two-out misplayed double in the seventh and striking out four in that span.

Daytona, though, couldn’t answer. Trey Faltine doubled with one out in the seventh, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a triple. A walk followed, but that wound up as the final Daytona runner of the night.

In the ninth, Dunedin added a pair of insurance runs on a sacrifice fly and a two-out triple from Bryce Arnold. Eliander Alcalde held the lead, setting down the final seven batters of the night to secure a 4-1 win for Dunedin.