Sac-fly in 10th lifts Miracle 3-2
Marcus Knecht capped off a stellar night at the plate with a game-winning sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th inning to walk-off the Fort Myers Miracle in a 3-2 win and complete a three-game sweep of the Jupiter Hammerheads at Hammond Stadium.
Knecht brought a large crowd of 4,009 fans to their feet with a bases loaded drive in the 10th. The inning started with an infield hit by Alex Swim off Jupiter reliever Miguel Del Pozo. After striking out Bryan Haar, Del Pozo (0-1) surrendered a base hit to Niko Goodrum and bloop single to Chad Christensen to load the bases. Knecht stepped up and whistled a 1-0 pitch into left. Hammerheads left fielder Austin Dean caught the ball, but his throw sailed behind a sliding Swim to give the Miracle a fourth walk-off win of the season.
Involved in each Miracle run on the night, Knecht helped break a scoreless tie in the fifth. With one out, Knecht hammered a 1-0 pitch from Jupiter starter Scott Lyman into the gap in left center for a triple, his first of the year. Michael Quesada then drove Knecht in with a sacrifice fly to deep center to put the Miracle up 1-0.
In the seventh, Knecht stirred up a two-out rally by beating out an infield hit to the shortstop. Hammerheads reliever Tyler Bremer then plunked Quesada to put runners on first and second. On Bremer’s next pitch, Logan Wade looped a base hit into center and Knecht crossed home to give the Miracle a 2-0 advantage.
Fort Myers starter Brett Lee held the lead through seven scoreless innings, but struggled in the eighth. Chris Hoo and Yefri Perez picked up back-to-back singles. J.T. Riddle failed to bunt the runners over and was retired on a strikeout, but then Swim tried to catch Perez off the bag at first. Swim threw errantly and the base runners advanced to second and third.
With Dean at the plate, Lee tossed a wild pitch in the dirt and Hoo scored to cut the Miracle lead to 2-1. Brian Gilbert entered from the bullpen and gave up an RBI single to Brian Anderson to tie the game before retiring the side.
Lee got a no decision after 7 1/3 innings and two runs allowed, one earned. Retiring the first 14 hitters in a row, Lee tallied three strikeouts and recorded 12-of-22 outs on the ground.
Lyman also received a no decision for Jupiter in six innings and was credited with four hits, one run and five strikeouts.
Luke Westphal worked around two hits in the ninth and 10th for a pair of scoreless innings in relief. Westphal (1-2) picked up the win and stranded the go-ahead run at third base in the top of the 10th.
The Miracle (14-16) have won five in a row and played 11 extra-inning games in the first 30 of the season. They host the Dunedin Blue Jays for the first of a four-game series aT 7:05 p.m. Monday at 7:05 p.m.