Marauders Top Hammerheads 6-2

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BRADENTON – The Marauders (63-50, 28-16) topped the Jupiter Hammerheads (41-71, 14-29) 6-2 on Wednesday night at McKechnie Field. John Kuchno (W, 8-8) logged seven strong innings on the mound and the Marauders took advantage of three Jupiter errors. The win extends Bradenton’s lead in the division race to 1.5 games over second place Palm Beach.

The Marauders jumped in front in the bottom of the third inning. Justin Maffei led off with a single and moved up to second when Adam Frazier’s grounder to shortstop was booted. Walker Gourley dropped down his second sacrifice bunt of the game to advance Maffei and Frazier. Jose Osuna lifted a sacrifice fly to center field to put the Marauders up 1-0.

Jupiter strung together three hits in the sixth inning to briefly take a 2-1 lead, but the Marauders answered in the home half of the inning. Osuna popped up on the infield, but as the  four infielder’s converged near the mound, the ball glanced off third baseman Avery Romero’s glove and fell to the grass. Jordan Steranka followed with a single to put two on. Max Moroff’s single to center plated Osuna to tie the game. Eric Wood bunted back to the mound, but Jupiter starter Austin Brice (L, 7-8) mishandled the bunt to load the bases. Justin Howard doubled in two run to give Bradenton the lead back 4-2. With two outs, Maffei singled to center to plate the fifth run of the game.

Walker Gourley led off with a double against Casey McCarthy in the seventh, stole third, and scored on Steranka’s ground out to second to establish the final margin. Josh Smith pitched a scoreless eighth inning. Bryton Trepagnier pitched the ninth.  

The teams meet on Thursday at 5:00 p.m. for a doubleheader. Tyler Glasnow and Pat Ludwig are slated to pitch for the Marauders. Both games will last seven innings. Gates open at 4:30 p.m.

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