Battle’s homer sinks Mussels, 5-3
FORT MYERS – Kyle Battle delivered the knockout punch Thursday, delivering a three-run home run to lift the Tampa Tarpons past the Mighty Mussels 5-3 at Hammond Stadium.
In a tie game in the top of the ninth, Tampa (45-46, 18-7) led off the inning with back-to-back singles. That brought Battle to the plate, who cranked a home run onto the berm in left field to give the Tarpons a 5-2 lead.
Fort Myers (51-38, 10-15) added another run in the bottom of the ninth on a Daniel Ozoria RBI bloop single to left to cut it to 5-3. However, the Mussels stranded the tying run on first.
Fort Myers trailed 2-0 from the second inning until the bottom of the eighth. Mighty Mussels speedsters Ozoria and Luis Baez singled to lead off the inning. After Baez’ hit moved Ozoria to third, Baez promptly stole second. Misael Urbina and Noah Miller both hit sacrifice flies to left to tie the game at 2-2.
Tampa started the game off by scoring singular runs in the first two innings against Fort Myers starter Marco Raya.
Raya worked around the two runs to retire 11 of the last 12 hitters he faced, finishing with a line of four hits over five innings while striking out two on 70 pitches. Samuel Perez (2-4) threw three scoreless innings before allowing the three-run home run in his fourth inning of work. Jackson Hicks tossed a scoreless ninth, fanning two after replacing Perez.
The Mighty Mussels look to get into the win column today as LHP Steve Hajjar (2-1, 2.04) takes the mound against Tarpons’ RHP Juan Carela (7-2, 2.89). Coverage begins at 6:45 PM on the Mighty Mussels Baseball Network.