Mussels rained out Sunday after clinching series with Marauders Saturday
FORT MYERS – Sunday’s series finale between the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels and Bradenton Marauders was cancelled due to consistent lightning and thunderstorms at Hammond Stadium. Since the FSL’s First Half season ends on June 23, the game will not be made up.
The Mussels will return home on Tuesday, June 28 for a six-game series with the Dunedin Blue Jays.
FORT MYERS – The Mighty Mussels plated four runs in the fourth inning Saturday and hung on for a 5-4 victory to claim the series over the Bradenton Marauders at Hammond Stadium.
Kala’i Rosario got the inning off to a bang with a long two-run home run to center to give Fort Myers (39-22) a 2-1 lead. After a single from Dillon Tatum, Luis Baez slashed a hit the other way to extend the lead to 3-1. The next batter was Jake Rucker, who smoked a base hit up the middle to cap the inning at 4-1 Mussels.
Rosario is hitting .320 with three homers and 8 RBI (.962 OPS) over 14 games in the month of June, by far his best month of the season.
With Fort Myers still leading 4-1 in the fifth, Noah Cardenas walked before stealing second. After a groundout advanced him to third, Cardenas came home on a Bradenton (27-35) balk to make it 5-1.
However, the Marauders came back in the top of the eight, stringing together three consecutive hits to make it 5-3. After a walk loaded the bases, Regi Grace Jr. issues a wild pitch to cut the margin to 5-4. With two outs, Grace Jr. managed to strike out Wyatt Hendrie to maintain the lead for the Mussels.
John Wilson worked a scoreless ninth to notch his second save of the season. Marco Raya started for Fort Myers and fanned five of the nine batters he faced. Matt Mullenbach (3-0) followed and fanned four over 2.1 innings to get the win. Niklas Rimmel then spun two scoreless innings of relief.
Homers, pitching lead Mussels to 8-3 win
FORT MYERS – A pair of three-run home runs and dominant pitching led the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels to an 8-3 win over the Bradenton Marauders Friday at Hammond Stadium.
Pierson Ohl (3-3) earned the win, tossing five innings while allowing four hits, three runs and fanning five. Malik Barrington worked three perfect innings in relief, striking out six. Juan Mendez struck out the final two batters in a scoreless ninth. Mussels (38-22) pitching retired 17 of the last 18 Bradenton (27-34) hitters.
In the bottom of the second, Fort Myers third baseman Keoni Cavaco singled and stole second before Mikey Perez doubled down the left field line to make it 1-0. With two outs in the inning, Luis Baez singled up the middle to extend the lead to 2-0.
The Marauders answered in the top of the third. With the bases loaded, Deivis Nadal grounded out to second to cut the lead to 2-1. The next batter was Jase Bowen, who singled to left to give the Marauders a 3-2 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, the first two Mussels reached base. Then with one out, Rubel Cespedes hit a towering home run to right field. His first Low-A homer gave the lead back to Fort Myers 5-3.
The Mussels tacked on more in the bottom of the eighth, as Perez singled. Then Kala’i Rosario notched his third single of the night before Carlos Aguiar hit a deep home run to left center to extend the lead to 8-3.