PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (June 21, 2017) - The Charlotte Stone Crabs finished the first half of the season Wednesday with a 6-4 win over the Palm Beach Cardinals at Charlotte Sports Park.The Stone Crabs wrapped up the first half with a final record of 31-37.Charlotte used a four-run first inning
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (June 21, 2017) - The Charlotte Stone Crabs finished the first half of the season Wednesday with a 6-4 win over the Palm Beach Cardinals at Charlotte Sports Park.
The Stone Crabs wrapped up the first half with a final record of 31-37.
Charlotte used a four-run first inning to propel themselves to the victory and series split. Ryan Boldt, Peter Maris and Brandon Lowe each singled in the first inning to load the bases against Cardinals (40-27) starter Junior Fernandez (3-3). Dalton Kelly followed by lining a double to the gap in left to give the Stone Crabs a 2-0 lead. With runners at second and third and no outs, David Rodríguez drove in Lowe with a groundout to make the score 3-0. David Olmedo-Barrera then flew out to right to bring home Kelly and make the count 4-0.
After Rodriguez singled in the third inning, Thomas Milone lined a double to left to score Rodriguez and give the Stone Crabs a 5-0 lead.
After the Cardinals got a run back on a Luke Dykstra single in the fourth, Danny Diekroeger led off the sixth with a walk. Thomas Spitz then singled against Stone Crabs starter Eduar Lopez (6-5) to move Diekroeger to second. After a strikeout, José Godoy walked to load the bases. Lopez then issued a wild pitch, allowing Diekroeger to score and make it a 5-2 game. Dykstra then grounded a ball to first that was missed by Kelly, allowing Spitz to score and make the score 5-3. Reece Karalus then replaced Lopez and uncorked another wild pitch, allowing Godoy to come across and bring Palm Beach to within one. Two batters later, Blake Drake lined into a double play to end the threat and preserve Charlotte's 5-4 lead.
Lopez finished the day with three earned runs allowed on eight hits over 5.1 innings. He struck out four and walked two to get the win.
The Stone Crabs tacked on an insurance run in the seventh on singles from Lowe and Rodriguez.
Karalus and Dalton Moats worked 3.2 shutout innings out of the Charlotte bullpen to maintain the lead. Moats worked a perfect ninth to earn his third save with the Stone Crabs.
The Stone Crabs will kick off the second half of the season Thursday night in Port St. Lucie at 6:30 p.m. against the Mets. Brock Burke (0-2, 7.27) makes the start for Charlotte against Joe Shaw (3-5, 5.97) of St. Lucie. Coverage begins at 6:15 p.m. on the Stone Crabs Baseball Network.
