Tarpons ride late-inning home runs to topple Mussels

Jun 25, 2023 6 min read

Late Tarpons’ homers topple Mussels, 9-7

TAMPA – Despite strong performances from Rafael Cruz and Mikey Perez, the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels lost their lead late after two clutch homers led the Tampa Tarpons to a 9-7 victory Saturday at Steinbrenner Field.

Cruz finished with two extra-base hits and drove in three. Perez reached base in four of his five plate appearances and scored twice as well.

After the Mussels (35-35, 0-2) took the lead in the top of the eighth, Anthony Hall and Christopher Familia each pummeled two-run homers to give the Tarpons (33-35, 2-0) a 9-6 lead. Despite pushing across one more run in the top of the ninth, Fort Myers stranded the tying run at first.

With no score and one out in the top of the second, Kyle Schmidt walked and Mikey Perez singled and advanced on an error to place runners and second and third. Dylan Neuse then served a fly ball to left center that was deep enough to score Schmidt from third and give the Mussels a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of half of the same frame, starter Develson Aria allowed a single and hit two batters to load the bases with one out. Ronny Rojas then rolled a soft grounder up the middle and Mussels second basemen Kamron Willman made the diving stop towards his right. Willman’s flip towards second landed short which allowed two runs to score to give the Tarpons a 2-1 lead.

After a ground out and a walk, the bases were loaded for Anthony Hall. On the first pitch he saw, he seared a ground ball into right field that pushed across two more runs to double the Tampa lead to 4-1.

Looking to chip away with two outs in the top of the third, De Andrade launched an opposite-field homer to right which cut the Mussels’ deficit to two. The round tripper gave him five on the season and his third of the month.

Still down by two in the top of the fourth, Cruz led off the frame with a mammoth solo shot down the left-field line to make it 4-3. The ball left Cruz’s bat a 102.7 miles per hour and traveled 395 feet.

Later in the frame, Perez walked to place the tying run on base. With Dylan Neuse at the dish, Perez took off for second as Neuse subsequently smoked a liner into the gap in right center. Perez scored on the triple to tie the game at 4-4.

In the top of the fifth, De Andrade singled with one out. Two hitters and one out later, he took off on the pitch and Cruz reached well out of the strike zone to hook a line-drive double down the left field line. De Andrade scored all the way from first to give the Mussels a 5-4 lead.

Reliever Jarret Whorff was stellar in relief, tossing a career-high 3.2 shutout innings to hold the lead at one through the seventh. He allowed just two hits and fanned four.

With the same score in the bottom of the seventh, Christopher Familia doubled on a fly ball to right that Neuse lost in the twilight skies. After Familia advanced to third on a wild pitch, Brenny Escanio drove in the game’s tying run with a sac fly to right to make it 5-5.

In the top of the eighth, Perez singled to center and then stole second with two outs. The next hitter was Willman who grounded a single to center to score Perez and give the Mussels a 6-5 advantage, before Tampa took the lead in the bottom of the eighth.

The Mussels will look to salvage a series split today as they send C.J. Culpepper (3-3, 2.68) to the hill against Tampa’s Baron Stuart (1-4, 5.82). First pitch is set for noon with coverage beginning at 11:45 a.m. on the Mighty Mussels Baseball Network.

Ramirez homer sinks Mussels 5-3 in second half opener

TAMPA – The Mighty Mussels erased another multi-run deficit Friday, but Agustin Ramirez’ three-run homer pushed the Tampa Tarpons past Fort Myers 5-3 at Steinbrenner Field.

With the Mussels (34-33, 0-1) leading 3-2 and two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Tampa’s (32-35, 1-0) Jared Serna doubled to left and advanced to third on a wild pitch. The next batter was Anthony Hall, who skipped a grounder that initially looked like it was heading to Rafael Cruz at shortstop. However, the ball knocked off field umpire Davion Frye which resulted in a dead ball and a first and third situation.

The strange sequence allowed the inning to extend to Ramirez, who promptly belted a three-run homer to left to give Tampa a 5-3 lead that they would not look back from.

With no score in the bottom of the second, Christopher Familia singled on a liner to right to open the inning. The next Tarpons hitter was Brenny Escanio, who grounded and reached on a fielder’s choice play that eliminated Familia. Two hitters later, Escanio advanced to second on a disengagement violation by starter Ben Ethridge (0-4) and scored on an RBI single from Tayler Aguilar to make it 1-0 Tampa.

In the bottom of the third, Hall launched a skyscraping homer to the bleachers in right field to push the Tarpons lead to 2-0. The long ball marked Hall’s second in as many games against Fort Myers.

Ethridge was solid over his career-high five innings of work, allowing just two runs on three hits with two punchouts.

With the same score in the top of the fourth, Rubel Cespedes jumped on the first pitch he saw and scorched a homer to deep right center to cut the deficit to 2-1. The dinger traveled 389 feet and gave Cespedes his seventh on the season.

Still trailing by one in the top of the seventh, Kyle Schmidt doubled on a liner to center to place the game’s tying run in scoring position. After Schmidt advanced to third on a ground out, Dylan Neuse drove a fly ball to deep right center that was ran down by Anthony Hall. Schmidt tagged from third and scored on the sac fly to tie to game 2-2.

In the top of the eighth, Maddux Houghton and Ricardo Olivar notched back-to-back singles to place runners at the corners with no outs. After a strikeout of Danny De Andrade, Cespedes grounded into a 6-3 fielder’s choice to score Houghton and give the Mussels a 3-2 advantage.