BRADENTON – The Marauders (32-53, 6-11) fell 1-0 to the Charlotte Stone Crabs (40-45, 11-7) on Monday night at McKechnie Field. The Marauders had the tying run reach third in each of the last two innings, but could not push a man across the plate.
Joely Rodriguez (L, 0-2) was masterful for the Marauders, pitching seven innings while allowing six hits and one walk. Luke Bailey’s solo home run on the first pitch of the third inning provided the only run of the game. Rodriguez struck out three and walked one. Zac Fuesser tossed two scoreless innings for the Marauders out of the bullpen.
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Roberto Gomez (W, 5-7) extended his scoreless innings streak to 15 2/3, stifling the Marauders until there were two down in the sixth. Willy Garcia singled to snap a streak of 11 straight men retired and chase Gomez from the game. The Stone Crabs starter allowed only two hits while striking out five.
Nate Garcia earned his seventh save for the Stone Crabs. After allowing a leadoff double to Elias Diaz in the ninth inning, Garcia walked Dan Gamache on four pitches. The Charlotte closer bounced back to strike out Stetson Allie, Willy Garcia, and Jose Osuna in order to end the game.
Nate Garcia entered with two in scoring position in the eighth inning with two outs. He picked Junior Sosa off second base, starting a run down during which Benji Gonzalez broke from third and wound up being tagged out on a bang-bang play at the plate. Gonzalez had doubled to start the inning and stole third on the front end of a double steal as Alen Hanson struck out for the second out of the inning against Shay Crawford.
The Marauders travel to Palm Beach on Tuesday to begin a seven-day road trip. Bradenton faces the Cardinals at 6:35 p.m. on Tuesday. The game will be broadcast online at www.BradentonMarauders.com.