Miracle pinch Crabs 5-3
Chih-Wei Hu tossed six solid inning with eight strikeouts in a 5-3 series opening win for the Fort Myers Miracle over the Charlotte Stone Crabs Thursday night at Hammond Stadium.
The Miracle gave Hu (3-0) an early lead in the first by scoring a run without getting a hit. On a rehabilitation assignment for a mild back strain, Charlotte starter Enny Romero began the game with a five-pitch walk to Engelb Vielma. With Aderling Mejia at the plate, Vielma swiped second base. Romero then walked Mejia. Niko Goodrum advanced the runners to second and third with a groundout to the right side. Mitch Garver stepped up and lifted a fly ball to left. Marty Gantt made the catch, but Vielma raced home for a 1-0 lead.
In the top of the second, the Stone Crabs answered with an unearned run against Hu. Jake Bauers led off with a walk, just the second issued by Hu all season. Joey Rickard struck out, but Juniel Querecuto singled to put runners at first and second. Armando Araiza then hit a slow bouncing ball to short that kicked off Vielma’s shin and into the outfield. Bauers scored on the error.
With two in scoring position and one out, Hu rallied to retire Mike Marjama on a flyout to right and struck out Yoel Araujo to end the inning.
Tied 1-1, the Miracle broke away with three runs in the third against Charlotte reliever German Marquez. Mejia led off with a looping base hit to left. Goodrum fell behind in the count 0-2, but raked a pitch over the wall in right field for a two-run homer. His third of the season, Goodrum’s blast went 366 feet. Up 3-1, the Miracle added another run. Garver coaxed a walk to continue the frame. After Bryan Haar flew out to right, Alex Swim hit into a fielder’s choice that retired Garver at second base.
With two outs, Chad Christensen kept the Miracle alive in the inning with a base hit to left. A passed ball moved Swim to third and Christensen to second while Logan Wade reached on a walk. With the bases loaded and Jason Kanzler at the plate, Marquez delivered a high fastball that sailed over catcher Armando Araiza’s glove and Swim scored on the wild pitch, 4-1.
Charlotte sliced a run off the lead in the fifth. Marjama and Araujo worked back-to-back singles. Hu got Gantt to fly out to left, but surrendered an RBI single to Kean Wong through the right side. Another instance where the Stone Crabs had two on with one out, Hu worked out of the jam by getting Willy Adames to pop up behind home plate and Bauers to roll out to short.
Hu finished his night with a 1-2-3 sixth inning including his eighth and final strikeout. Hu walked two and allowed two runs, one earned, on four hits with 105 pitches thrown, 63 for strikes.
Todd Van Steensel entered out of the pen in the seventh and continued the trend of missing Charlotte bats. Van Steensel fanned four in two innings.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Miracle added an insurance run. Kanzler led off with a hustle double into left center then advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Vielma. Mejia hit a soft fly into left field that was caught by Gantt, but Kanzler sped home to push the Miracle lead to 5-2.
J.T. Chargois emerged from the bullpen to close the door in the ninth. Chargois immediately ran into difficulty when Haar could not handle a throw from Goodrum on the first hitter of the inning. Marjama followed with a broken bat single into right field. Chargois got Araujo to fly to right for the first out, but issued a walk to Gantt to load the bases.
Wong then hit a slow rolling ball to Vielma on an 0-2 pitch. Vielma retired the lead runner at second while a run scored to cut the Miracle lead to a pair of runs, 5-3. Chargois faced Adames with the tying runs in scoring position after Wong stole second. On a 3-2 pitch, Chargois struck out Adames to end the game and record in second save of the season.
The Miracle (8-13) head to Charlotte for the next two games of the series with the Stone Crabs (14-7). Friday night’s game starts at 6:30 p.m. and fans can listen on www.miraclebaseball.com with the “Voice of the Miracle” Brice Zimmerman. The MiracleBaseball.com