Charlotte 6, Bradenton 5

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PORT CHARLOTTE – The Marauders (18-17) put the tying run on third base in the eighth inning and second base in the ninth, but could not complete the comeback in a 6-5 loss to the Stone Crabs (17-18) on Friday night at Charlotte Sports Park. Jeff Ames (W, 1-3) earned his first win of the season for the Stone Crabs in the game.

The Stone Crabs never trailed in the game, plating the first run against Jason Creasy (L, 2-2) in the bottom of the first. Andrew Toles reached on an error went to third on a double by Leonardo Reginatto. Toles scored on a grounder to second by Tommy Coyle.

Bradenton briefly tied the game in the second inning. Jacob Stallings crushed his first home run of the season out to left to knot the score 1-1. Ames did not allow another run, tossing five innings and striking out four batters.

Justin O’Conner started his big day at the dish with a solo homer off Creasy in the second to put Charlotte back on top 2-1. Charlotte scored again in the third as Toles doubled and was plated by Reginatto’s single. O’Conner doubled with one out in the fourth inning and scored on Josh Sale’s double to extend the lead to 4-1. Jonathan Quinonez singled in Sale to give the Stone Crabs a 5-1 advantage. Creasy was lifted after four innings, allowing five runs (four earned) and striking out three.

Orlando Castro held Charlotte scoreless in the fifth, and Bradenton started a comeback effort. Eric Wood tripled and scored on Ashley Ponce’s ground out in the sixth inning.

Bradenton’s best chance to tie came in the eighth. With Charlotte leading 5-2, Marcus Jensen (S, 4) allowed three straight singles to load the bases with nobody out. Ponce singled to drive in a run and keep the bases loaded. Jonathan Schwind hit a hard ground ball to second base that was booted by Coyle, plating another run and keeping the bases loaded. Jensen recovered to strike out Jeff Roy, pop up Stallings, and then got a check swing grounder off the bat of Raul Fortunato to end the threat.

Charlotte plated a run in the eighth to extend the lead back to two at 6-4. Wood doubled Bell home with two outs in the ninth inning to cut the lead to one and put the tying run in scoring position, but Ponce flew out to end the game.

The Marauders send Tyler Glasnow to the hill at McKechnie Field on Saturday night with a chance to win the series. First pitch is at 6:30 p.m. with gates opening at 5:30 p.m.

The box score for Thursday's game can be seen here; the Play-by-Play review can be viewed here.