PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (May 15, 2019) - The Stone Crabs scored in each of the three final innings Wednesday, but came up short in an 8-4 loss to the Daytona Tortugas at Charlotte Sports Park. Jim Haley picked up two more hits and two RBI, and is now batting .455
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (May 15, 2019) - The Stone Crabs scored in each of the three final innings Wednesday, but came up short in an 8-4 loss to the Daytona Tortugas at Charlotte Sports Park.
Jim Haley picked up two more hits and two RBI, and is now batting .455 (15-for-33) with nine RBI over his last eight games. The Penn State product has raised his batting average from .250 to .298 over that span, and is now the top qualified hitter on the Stone Crabs (19-20).
The Tortugas wasted no time jumping in front against Stone Crabs starter Stephen Woods Jr. Jr. (1-1). Jose Garcia led off with a walk before he was replaced on a force out. The next batter was Jonathan India, who lined an RBI triple past a diving Garrett Whitley to make it 1-0. The next batter was Stuart Fairchild, who dropped an RBI double to right to make it 2-0. Bruce Yari then stroked a single to center to chase home Fairchild and cap the rally at 3-0.
Woods Jr. lasted 4.2 innings in his Charlotte Sports Park debut, allowing five runs on five hits while fanning three.
With Daytona still up three in the top of the fifth, India walked with two outs. The next batter was Drew Mount, who tripled to deep center to score India and make it 4-0. After Alex Valverde entered to pitch, Fairchild reached on an infield single to bring in Mount and push the count to 5-0. Yari then quickly lined a single to right to finish off the inning with a 6-0 lead.
After Daytona added two more in the top of the seventh on a Bruce Yari home run to make it 8-0, the Stone Crabs' offense found its footing in the bottom of the inning. After a Carl Chester double, Haley ripped an RBI double to the left field corner to score Chester and make it 8-1. Two batters later, Joey Roach singled to left to bring in Haley and bring the score to 8-2.
The Stone Crabs continued to show fight over the last two innings. They added a run in the bottom of the eighth on a Haley single before Vidal Brujan plated Roach with a single in the ninth to bring the final to 8-4.
Charlotte will go for a series split at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. Tobias Myers (1-0, 3.27) will pitch of the bulk of the innings for the Crabs, against Austin Orewiler (1-3, 4.30) of Daytona. Coverage begins at 6:15 p.m. on the Stone Crabs Baseball Network.
