Lakeland sweeps Dunedin in twin bill to take series

DUNEDIN, FL – The Blue Jays couldn’t overcome early deficits in both games of a doubleheader and were defeated by Lakeland 6-1 in game one and 10-7 in game two on Saturday night at TD Ballpark.

In game one, Samuel Gil blasted a two-run homer in the second inning to give Lakeland a 2-0 lead.

Yhoangel Aponte trimmed the lead down to 2-1 in the third inning with a solo shot, but that’s as close as Dunedin would get. The Flying Tigers rallied for four runs on three hits in the top of the fourth, capped by a Nomar Fana three-run homer to make it 6-1.

In the second contest, the Blue Jays played as the road team on the scoreboard as the game was a makeup from a July 20 postponement in Lakeland.

Nick Mitchell opened the scoring for Dunedin, launching a leadoff homer to put the Jays ahead 1-0.

The lead was short lived, as Lakeland scored a whopping seven runs in the bottom of the first, highlighted by a three-run homer from Jose De La Cruz and bases-loaded triple from Zach MacDonald.

In the second, the Blue Jays responded, as Eddie Micheletti lined a solo homer to right and Mitchell picked up an RBI single, trimming the lead down to 7-3.

The Flying Tigers got both of those runs back in the bottom of the frame, as Garrett Pennington homered and Jackson Strong picked up an RBI single.

Dunedin scored the next four runs to claw back into the contest. In the fourth, Edward Duran delivered a bases-loaded, two-RBI single to make it 9-5.

In the sixth, Sean Keys punched a triple into the right center field gap to drive in Mitchell and Arjun Nimmala, cutting Lakeland’s lead to 9-7.

In the bottom of the frame, De La Cruz poked his second home run of the ballgame to push the advantage back to three, 10-7 in favor of the Flying Tigers. In the seventh, Dunedin couldn’t stage a comeback.

The Blue Jays’ home schedule concludes on Sunday with first pitch scheduled for noon. Fans can buy tickets now at DunedinBlueJays.com.