Duno Homers, But Early Errors Costly in Series-Opening Defeat

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla—Alfredo Duno connected for his third home run of the season, but the Tortugas fell behind in the top of the first inning and could never recover in a 3-1 defeat to the Lakeland Flying Tigers on Tuesday night at Jackie Robinson Ballpark.

Lakeland (18-10) recorded just four hits, but Daytona (17-11) only notched three in a game devoid of scoring opportunities and took just 1 hour and 59 minutes to complete.

Lakeland took advantage of shaky defense from Daytona to take a quick lead in the first. Kevin McGonigle led off the game with a routine fly ball left, but it was misplayed for a three-base error. An infield hit by Max Clark followed to bring him home. With two outs, Brett Callihan pulled a double into the right-field corner to score Clark to put Lakeland ahead 2-0 on a pair of unearned tallies.

In the bottom of the first, Daytona responded with two outs against Joe Miller, as Duno won an eight-pitch at-bat by lining a 2-2 pitch from Miller 409 feet to left-center for a solo home run, slicing the deficit to 2-1 on Duno’s third longball of the season.

3rd homer of the year for Alfredo Duno 💣@daytonatortugas pic.twitter.com/PGW1T5xTl0

— Reds On The Rise (@RedsOnTheRise) May 7, 2024

However, the pitching took command from there. Miller allowed a leadoff single in the third, but retired the next two batters before a caught stealing ended the inning, which wound up being the only other runner allowed by the Lakeland lefty in his 5.0 innings of work.

Montero, meanwhile, settled in after the first-inning hiccups. The Tortuga starter retired 12 consecutive batters, including 1-2-3 second, third, and fourth frames. He allowed a two-out walk in the fifth, but Connor Burns picked him off first to end the inning, ending Montero’s outing after 5.0 innings of two-hit ball with the two unearned runs and a season-high six strikeouts.

Gabriel Aguilera followed with a spotless sixth, but ran into trouble to start the seventh. Clayton Campbell led off with a double and moved to third on a single from Callihan. A double play followed to get Aguilera the first two outs of the inning, but Campbell scored to put Lakeland up 3-1.

In the bottom of the seventh, Daytona had a golden opportunity to cut the deficit against reliever Gabriel Sequeira as Dominic Pitelli led off the inning with his third triple of the year. After a strikeout, though, Pitelli tried to come home on a ball that glanced off catcher Josue Briceno, but the Lakeland backstop flipped the ball to Sequeira covering the plate to tag out Pitelli, effectively ending the threat.

In the final two innings, Daytona would only notch one more baserunner, a two-out hit batter in the eighth, as the Tortugas went quietly to drop the series opener.

Daytona will play game two of the series tomorrow night against Lakeland. LHP Adam Serwinowski (1-0, 0.86) will take the mound for Daytona opposite Lakeland LHP Joe Adametz (1-0, 1.06). Tomorrow will be Belly Buster Wednesday with all-you-care-to-eat hot dogs, hamburgers, popcorn, and Little Caesars Pizza beginning at just $17. First pitch from Jackie Robinson Ballpark is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. with pregame coverage on the Tortugas Radio Network with Brennan Mense begins at 6:20 p.m.