FORT MYERS – The Jupiter Hammerheads took a first inning lead and led wire-to-wire against the Mighty Mussels to open the six-game series Tuesday night at Hammond Stadium.

Jupiter (6-4) had the first three batters reach to start the game. Jordan McCants led off with an opposite field single, Jake DeLeo followed with a hit-by-pitch and Jesus Hernandez reached on an error to load the bases with nobody out. Brock Vrandenburg and John Cruz then each drove in a run on a pair of ground outs to give Jupiter a 2-0 lead.

The Hammerheads added another run in the second with some aggressive baserunning. Colby Shade led off the second inning with a single to left field. He then advanced to second on a hit-by-pitch, stole third and came in to score on a wild pitch to Jake DeLeo to make it a 3-0 game.

In the bottom of the third, Issac Pena reached on an infield single with one out for Fort Myers (4-6). The next batter was Rayne Doncon, who doubled down the left field line to put the Mussels on the board and make it a 3-1 game.

Jupiter added two runs in the fourth and sixth innings to extend their lead 7-1.

Maddux Houghton led off the bottom of the seventh with an infield single to third, beating the throw from Cristhian Rodriguez. Houghton then used his legs again later in the inning to generate a run, scoring all the way from second on a fielder’s choice to make it a 7-2 game.

Fort Myers had another rally in the eighth as Brandon Winokur connected on a 100.4 MPH leadoff double in the left-center field gap. Winokur came in to score two batters later on a groundout off the bat of Poncho Ruiz. Rafael Cruz then started things back up with a two out, two strike, opposite field single. The next two batters, Houghton and Gregory Duran each walked to load the bases. Cruz then scored on a wild pitch to make it a 7-4 game with the tying run at the plate. Jupiter escaped the jam when Wilfri Castro grounded out to end the inning.

Ty Langenberg (0-1) took the loss after allowing five runs (two earned) over five innings as he scattered three hits and struck out four. Langenberg has now thrown five innings in back-to-back starts, while no one else in the rotation has done so even once.

Samuel Perez and Danny Moreno each threw two innings in relief for the Mighty Mussels. Perez gave up two runs and struck out two while Moreno picked up three K’s over two scoreless frames.

The Mussels return to action today at 7:05 p.m. for game two of the series. Left-hander Ross Dunn (0-0, 2.56) takes the ball for Fort Myers against fellow lefty Emmett Olson (0-0, 0.00) who gets the start for Jupiter. Coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. on the Mighty Mussels Baseball Network.