Mussels fall behind early, bats silent in loss to Marauders
BRADENTON, Fla. – The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels were defeated by the Bradenton Marauders by a final score of 6-0 Thursday night at LECOM Park.
In the top of the first inning, Quinn McDaniel singled against Bradenton (20-16) starter Dariel Francia. McDaniel is now hitting .462 in three games with the team.
Fort Myers (20-16) sent Ramiro Villanueva (0-1) to the mound to make his fourth start of the season. Villanueva gave up back-to-back hits to begin the game, as Josh Tate singled and Dominic Fletcher doubled him in.
Villanueva struck out two Marauders to strand runners at first and third, but the Marauders took a 1-0 lead after the first inning.
Bradenton struck again in the second, as Tate singled Carlos Caro in. The Mussels found themselves down two runs after two innings.
Villanueva’s night was over after a scoreless third inning. He surrendered two runs on five hits, striking out two and walking one.
Reinold Navarro (2-1) took over with one out in the fourth inning. He flummoxed Mussel hitters through 4.1 innings, striking out nine hitters, allowing just one runner.
Jonathan Stevens took over in the fourth and was hit around. Bradenton struck for four runs against him, starting with a one out single from Caro. Back-to-back doubles by Antonio Pimentel and Tate scored two runs, making it 4-0.
Two batters later, Murf Gray hit his seventh home run of the year to extend Bradenton’s lead to 6-0.
Stevens was relieved after 1.1 innings, giving way to Kolten Smith. Smith quieted the Marauder bats over 3.2 innings, facing minimum and striking out four in his outing.
The Mussels did not score in the ninth inning, and were shutout for the first time in 30 days. The Mussels did draw five walks but struck out 15 times in the defeat.
The series continues today, May 15. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.