Fort Myers Mighty Mussels ends first half with blowout of Tampa Tarpons, 16-5
TAMPA, Fla. – The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels blew out the Tampa Tarpons 16-5 early this afternoon at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
Today’s contest concluded the first half of the 2026 season. The Mussels (37-28) finished as the second-place team in the Florida State League Western Division, compiling a winning record both at home and on the road, while leading the FSL with a run differential of +60.
The Mighty Mussels’ offense plated at least three runs in four different frames. The team has now scored 34 runs in three games this week. Today’s game was the seventh time the Mussels have plated at least 10 runs in a game this season.
The 20 hits by the offense fell one shy of the Mussels’ era (since 2020) record set earlier this season on May 30 in Daytona. It is the third game with at least 20 hits in the Mussels’ era.
Dameury Pena continued his torrid stretch as he recorded his second game this week with at least four hits. He is 10-for-16 in three games to begin the series and paces the FSL in hits with 76.
Ryan Sprock delivered a pinch-hit three-run homer in the eighth, extending his hitting streak to 12 games, the most by a Mussel this season and one shy of the top mark in the FSL. It is the longest hitting streak for a Mussel since Walker Jenkins in 2024 (13 games) and the franchise’s first pinch-hit home run since Khadim Diaw in September of that same season. Jenkins’ mark is second in the Mussels’ era, behind Christian Encarnacion-Strand who recorded a hit in 20 consecutive games in 2021.
Fort Myers sent Kolten Smith to the mound to make his fifth start of the season. Smith punched out four Tampa’s (35-31) batters across his first two innings of work.
The first five men reached in Fort Myers’ half of the third inning against Wyatt Parliament (0-1). Ricardo Paez, who was added from the Florida Complex League before Thursday’s game, crushed a double on the first pitch he saw as a Mighty Mussel. Paez’s rocket came off the bat at 103.9 mph before slamming against the wall in right.
Irvin Nunez drove in Paez with a hard-hit single up the middle to open the scoring. Later in the frame, Ramiro Dominguez and Jayson Bass each punched RBI singles into center field, making the score 3-0 Fort Myers.
Tampa’s offense got to work in the bottom of the frame, striking for two runs to tighten the Mussel lead to 3-2. Smith held the tying run at third base with a strikeout of Hans Montero.
In the fourth inning, the Mussels added on to their lead. Paez began the inning with a hustle double down the left field line. He was driven in by Byron Chourio two batters later to make the score 4-2.
Brent Francisco (6-2) relieved Smith with one on and one out in the fourth. Aided by a caught stealing, Francisco held the lead at two runs after four innings.
Luis Fragoza got Fort Myers on the board again in the fifth with a ringing double that came off the bat at 104.6 mph and brought home Bass. Later in the inning, with two runners in motion and Nunez at the plate, Tampa catcher David McCann made a costly mistake and unnecessarily threw to third on ball four of the plate appearance. That error allowed two more runs to score and extend the lead 7-2.
The Mussels added a run in the seventh on a successful double steal, with Bryan Acuna taking second and Fragoza swiping home on the back end of the play. Chourio tacked on another run with a single to right and Dominguez connected on a two-run knock of his own to extend the lead 11-2.
Tampa got a pair of runs back in the seventh off of Eric Hammond to close the gap 11-4.
Sprock’s homer and a two-run blast by Chourio pushed the lead to 16-4.
The series continues on Friday, June 19, with the start of the second half of the season at George M. Steinbrenner Field. Ramiro Villanueva (4.55) takes the mound for the Mussels and New York Yankees No. 14 prospect Henry Lalane (3.24) starts for Tampa. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. There will not be an audio broadcast on the Mighty Mussels baseball network for the final three games of the series.