Stone Crabs take out Tarpons 5-3

TAMPA, Fla. (May 1, 2019) - Riley O'Brien turned in six strong innings Wednesday and the Charlotte Stone Crabs rallied for three runs in the fourth to beat the Tampa Tarpons 5-3 at Steinbrenner Field.
O'Brien (2-0) has now gone 18 straight innings without allowing an earned run. The right-hander allowed just one unearned run on five hits Wednesday, fanning six and walking only one. He is now atop the Florida State League in innings pitched (34.0).
The Stone Crabs (12-14) got the scoring going in the top of the second. After a Moises Gomez single and Garrett Whitley walk, Zach Rutherford lined an RBI double to the right field corner to make it 1-0.
After the Tarpons (11-15) tied it in the third, Thomas Milone led off the fourth with a bunt single. Gomez followed by lining a double to the left field corner to score Milone and give Charlotte a 2-1 lead.  Jim Haley then lined a single to left to put runners at the corners. Whitley followed with a sacrifice fly to right that scored Gomez to make it 3-1. After Rutherford moved Haley to third on an infield single, Mac Seibert grounded out to push across Haley and extend the lead to 4-1.
Still leading by that margin in the top of the sixth, Whitley clobbered a solo home run to left to stretch the Charlotte lead to 5-1.
However, the Tarpons rallied against Stone Crabs reliever Chandler Raiden , who surrendered two unearned runs in the seventh to make the score 5-3.
Charlotte then brought in Benton Moss , who retired six straight Tampa hitters to earn a six-out save.
The Stone Crabs and Tarpons will play the series-deciding game at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. The game can be listened to on the Tarpons Baseball Network.