PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (May 25, 2017) - Brandon Lowe's walk-off three-run home run led the Charlotte Stone Crabs to a doubleheader sweep of the Daytona Tortugas Thursday at Charlotte Sports Park.Lowe's heroics in the first game makes him the first Stone Crabs player with four home runs this season. The
PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (May 25, 2017) - Brandon Lowe's walk-off three-run home run led the Charlotte Stone Crabs to a doubleheader sweep of the Daytona Tortugas Thursday at Charlotte Sports Park.
Lowe's heroics in the first game makes him the first Stone Crabs player with four home runs this season. The win gives Charlotte their first victory in their final at bat all year. They had been 0-6 in such games.
With the Stone Crabs (21-24) trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the eighth of a scheduled seven-inning game, David Olmedo-Barrera singled to start the inning against Tortugas (25-22) reliever Tanner Rainey (0-2). Center fielder Jake Fraley then drew a walk to push Olmedo-Barrera to second. After a strikeout, Lowe demolished a three-run home run to the bullpen in right field to win the game for Charlotte.
Prior to the drama in the eighth, both starters traded zeroes for seven innings. Daytona starter Wendolyn Bautista allowed four singles and two walks but did not strike out a single batter. The Stone Crabs put a pair of runners on base in both the first and second against Bautista but were unable to score.
Charlotte starter Génesis Cabrera , meanwhile, allowed only one hit and one walk over seven scoreless frames. He struck out a season-high seven. Cabrera has now worked to a 1.32 ERA over his last eight starts.
With the game scoreless in the top of the eighth, Chris Okey and Blake Butler both singled to right against Charlotte reliever Drew Smith . Stone Crabs catcher Brett Sullivan then miss-fired a pickoff attempt to first base, allowing the runners to move up to second and third. Two batters later, Alfredo Rodriguez singled to right to score both runners and make it 2-0.
Game two featured the High-A debut of Stone Crabs starter Travis Ott . Ott put up four scoreless innings before allowing two runs in the fifth. He finished his day with two runs allowed on four hits and four walks while striking out seven in 4.1 innings.
With the game scoreless in the bottom of the second, Olmedo-Barrera reached first on a bunt single. After David Rodríguez singled him to second, Jim Haley bounced a single to right to score Olmedo-Barrera and give Charlotte a 1-0 lead.
With Charlotte still up by one in the fourth, Olmedo-Barrera began the inning with a triple to right center. Rodriguez followed with a sacrifice fly to right to give the Stone Crabs a 2-0 lead.
After Daytona tied the game at two in the fifth, Charlotte first baseman Peter Maris singled with one out. Jake Cronenworth then walked to knock Tortugas starter Jonathan Crawford (0-3) out of the game. With two on and one out, Ryan Boldt greeted reliever Austin Orewiler with a single to center to score Maris and give Charlotte a 3-2 lead. Dalton Kelly followed with a bunt single to score Cronenworth and make it 4-2. Olmedo-Barrera then lined a base hit to center to extend the Charlotte lead to 5-2. With Kelly at third and one out, Rodriguez delivered another sacrifice fly to right to bring the score to 6-2.
Reliever Dalton Moats (1-0) worked 1.2 scoreless innings to earn the win in his Stone Crabs' debut.
The Stone Crabs will begin a three-game series with the Fort Myers Miracle on Friday at 6:35 p.m. Taylor Hawkins (1-2, 4.39) makes the start for Charlotte. Coverage begins at 6:20 p.m. on the Stone Crabs Baseball Network.
