Sunday, May 11, 2008

Fort Myers tops St. Lucie late, heads for Sara

Fort Myers Miracle


Fort Myers 7 at St. Lucie 5

W: R. Delaney (1-2, 0.48); L: C. Hoorelbeke (0-1, 7.71); SV: A. Slama (6)
HR: None.

A miraculous late inning comeback saw the Fort Myers Miracle sweep their series against the St. Lucie Mets. The Miracle now travel to Sarasota for a 3-game home-and-home series against the Reds.

The Miracle got on the board early with Juan Portes singling in the second inning, then stealing 2nd. A fielding error by Mets 3rd baseman J.R. Voyles allowed Portes to score and Danny Berg to reach base. Berg would be left stranded but the one run seemed an omen of good things to come.

And indeed, things were humming along quite well until the bottom of the third inning. With two outs on the board, Luis Rivera, Lucas Duda, D.J. Wabick and Josh Peterson all hit singles off Cole Devries to drive in one run. Josh Thole then doubled down the left field line to clear the bases, giving the Mets a three run lead.

Yancarlos Ortiz tripled in the top of the fifth, then came home on a Brian Dinkelman single to cut the lead in half.

Duda would double in the in 5th, then move to 3rd on Peterson's ground out. Following a walk to Thole, Reben Tejada sent a ground ball to left that scored Duda to restore the Mets three run lead.

Cole would get out of the inning but not return, his final line being 5 runs, earned on 10 hits and 3 walks while striking out one. Perhaps he was thinking of his mom's home cooking, as this was not one of his better performances.

Tobi Stoner would work six for the Mets, allowing 2 runs, 1 earned, on 5 hits and one walk while striking out 5. Ryan Coultas would head to the mound for the top of the seventh. With 2 outs on the board, Allan de San Miguel surprised everyone with a single. Ortiz followed him onto the bags on a grounder. The Mets would put Edgar Alfonzo on the mound to try for the 3rd out, but Dinkelman send a ground ball to second that scored the Miracle's Aussie catcher, helped in part by Rivera's throwing error on the play.

Jose Lugo would keep the Mets off the board in the six, and Rob Delaney took over for the seventh and 8th innings.

Casey Hoorelbeke replaced Alfonzo in for the top of the 8th, and gave up a single to Danny Valencia. Whit Robbins would hit into a double play though, so it was Juan Portes, with a double, who would come home on Ramos single. St. Lucie's dwindled down to just one run, and they would of course get nothing from the Miracle's Sandman.

Johnny Woodard would strike out for de San Miguel in the 9th - something I'm sure Dirty could have handled on his own - and Eddie Ovalle would fly out for Yancarlos Ortiz before Dinkelman gave the Miracle a glimmer of hope with a single out to center. Rene Tosoni then following him on to base, hitting a grounder out to right. Danny Valencia doubled to tie up the game and bring in the game winning run. A missed catch by Josh Thole at the plate sent Valencia over for the insurance run. Brandon Niall would get Whit Robbins out on strikes to retire the Miracle, but Anthony Slama went three-up, three-down, slamming the door on St. Lucie and sending the Miracle out of town on the victory bus.

Valencia was 4-for-5 with 1 run and 1 RBI and he also sends his love home to his Mom and dedicated his performance today to her. Happy Mother's Day Mrs. Valencia!

Dinkelman was 3-for-5, also with a run and an RBI. Portes was 2-for-4 with 2 runs and Oritz was 2-for-3 with a run.

with the win, the Miracle are now in first place, one game over the Tampa Yankees who come into town on Thursday for a three game set.

The Miracle return home on Wednesday against the Sarasota Reds who are in 3rd place in the division, three games back for "Island Night".

Jeff Manship (4-0, 3.23) will be on the mound tomorrow night at Ed Smith Stadium against former Miracle Alexander Smit (2-3, 5.17) for the 7:00 match up with the Reds.

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Miracle
News Press
Breeze
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Homestand Happenings

Fort Myers Miracle


Wake up early on Friday, May 16 and head to the stadium for a special “Education Day” start time of 10:35 a.m. Thousands of kids from Southwest Florida schools take this one-of-a-kind field trip. Kids learn about math, social studies and language arts and how it relates to baseball.




Beloit at Burlington

Sunday’s game between the Beloit Snappers and Burlington Bees was postponed due to rain. The game will now be made up in Beloit at Pohlman Field on Saturday, May 24th as part of a doubleheader beginning at 5:00 PM.

New Britain 7 at New Hampshire 4

W: R. Mullins (3-2, 3.25); L: A. Wideman (1-5, 7.36)
HR: NBR: S. Tolleson (4). NHM: A. Hatch (5).

New Britain took an early three run lead and managed to keep it, downing the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, 7-4 at Merchants Auto Stadium.

Toby Gardenhire's double led off the New Britain attack in the 3rd. Felix Molina drew a walk to get on base. Both would come home when Steve Tolleson smacked his 4th home run of the season over the left field wall.

Aaron Mathews doubled for the Fisher Cats in the bottom of the same inning and came home on Chris Gutierrez line drive to put New Hampshire on the board. The Cats took it back in the top of the next inning however, when David Winfree doubled, moved to 3rd on an Erik Lis single and scored on a Molina force out.

Ryan Patterson singled in the bottom of the fourth, and Anthony Hatch hit his fifth home run of the season to give the Fisher Cats two more.

Former Miracle lefty Ryan Mullins would work six inning allowing the 3 runs, earned, on six hits and 2 walks while striking out 2. A.J. Wideman would only make it through 5.1 innings, as New Britian turned on the offense again in the sixth inning.

Felix Molina would double before the pitching change that put Sean Stidtole on mound for the Fisher Cats. Jeff Christy then doubled to drive in Molina while Tolleson's line drive out to left brought in Christy. Dustin Martin would strike out swinging, but Brock Peterson reached on a fielding error by shortstop Ryan Klosterman allowing Tolleson to score.

Tolleson was 2-for-5 on the game with 2 runs and 4 RBIs. Winfree was 2-for-4 at the plate with a run.

The two teams rematch tomorrow with a 6:35 start.

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Fisher Cats
Rock Cats
NB Herald
Courant
Union Leader

Buffalo 4 at Rochester 2

W: M. Ginter (1-4, 6.48); L: P. Humber (1-4, 5.29); SV: R. Bauer (8)
HR: None.

Phillip Humber suffered his fourth loss of the season and the Wings continued to find ways to miss the ball. Garrett Jones was 2-for-4 in the designated hitter role, but the slugger is only .175 on the season. Howie Clark was 2-for-3 with a walk, a double and an RBI.

Denard Span took a walk in the bottom of the first, then moved to 3rd on a Darnell McDonald single. Brian Buscher's line drive would bring in Span to give the Wings one, but Buffalo took back 2 in the top of the 2nd.

Doubles by Jones and Clark got them one more in the bottom of the second, but they would get little else off Matt Glinter or the three relievers that followed him.

The last game of the four game series is Monday night at 7:05 at Frontier Field.

The Red Wings wore special pink jerseys as part of Breast cancer Awareness Day. The jerseys were auctioned off and raised over $3,400 for the Pluta Cancer Center. Tommy Watkins' number 8 jersey and Julia DePaula's number 35 each brought in $200, the top money raisers for the day.

Red Wings starting pitchers have just six wins in the first 38 games of the 2008 season (6-17 record).

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Red Wings
Bisons
D&C
D&C - Humber
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B-News

Former Miracle Nick Blackburn starts for the Twins against the Red Sox Sunday night, with the game shown live on ESPN.

Infielder Alexi Casilla, another former Miracle, became the fifth member of the Red Wings' Opening Day roster to be promoted to the Minnesota Twins. Overall, seven different players have played for both Rochester and Minnesota this season.

Class A Beloit outfielder Ben Revere is the Twins' Minor League Player of the Week for the week ending May 9. Revere hit .481 (13-for-27) and five steals in six games.

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