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Mussels earn walk-off win over Blue Jays for second straight night

By Staff | May 9, 2024

FORT MYERS – Byron Chourio delivered a walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 11th inning as the Mighty Mussels defeated the Dunedin Blue Jays 5-4 for their second consecutive walk-off win at Hammond Stadium.

Tied 4-4, Rafael Cruz led off the inning with a hit by pitch, putting men on first and second for Fort Myers (11-18). Omari Daniel followed with a bunt hit down the first base line to load the bases with nobody out. The next batter was Chourio, who promptly delivered a deep fly ball to center, plating auto-runner Maddux Houghton and ending the longest game of the season in terms of innings.

The walk-off was the third of the season for the Mussels. Poncho Ruiz delivered a walk-off single on April 23 and Jose Rodriguez crushed a walk-off grand slam in Tuesday’s series opener.

Fort Myers had a pair of early leads but Dunedin (12-17) rallied twice, taking a brief lead and later forcing a tie in the ninth.

The Mussels opened the scoring in the third inning on a two-run double to left-center from Rayne Doncon, scoring Cruz and Daniel.

Dunedin responded in the fourth, scoring three times and taking a 3-2 lead. Fort Myers had walked the bases loaded before a Daniel Perez infield single put the Blue Jays on the board. Jean Joseph followed with a two-run single to cap the scoring.

Cruz led off the bottom of the fifth with an infield single to third. Two batters later, Chourio connected on his fourth triple of the year, smoking a grounder down the right field line and into the corner to tie the game at 3-3. Doncon followed with an infield single to make it a 4-3 Mussels lead.

With Dunedin still down by one, Daniel Perez led off the top of the ninth with an opposite field triple, putting the tying run 90 feet away for the Blue Jays. Joseph followed with a base hit up the middle to tie the game 4-4.

Neither team was able to score in their halves of the 10th as the Dunedin infield turned a 6-4-3-2 double play to keep the game going.

Xander Hamilton (2-3) went two scoreless innings, striking out the side in the 11th to earn the win. Charlee Soto started for the Mussels and went the first 3.2 innings, striking out four.

The Mussels return to action on today at 7:05 p.m. Ty Langenberg (0-3, 5.75 ERA) takes the ball for Fort Myers, opposite Fernando Perez (1-1, 3.65 ERA) of Dunedin.