The Palm Beach Cardinals opened their season on Thursday with a 5-3 win over their Florida State League rivals, the Charlotte Stone Crabs. And on Friday night, they looked to win their second straight against Charlotte. But it turned out to be an entirely different result.
Palm Beach ended up falling 10-0 to Charlotte.
For the Cardinals, Austin Gomber got the start for the evening’s game. Gomber, as rated by Baseball America, is the St. Louis Cardinals’ 14th-ranked prospect in the organization. Friday, he had the chance to start the season off on a high note.
And interestingly enough, he did, going six innings, allowing only two runs on five hits, walking one, as well as six strikeouts. But the Cardinals’ bats were quiet throughout the night, mustering only a mere three hits on the evening off of Charlotte’s pitchers. Those three hits came from the bats of Hunter Wood, Steve Bean, and Nick Thompson.
Things really took a bad turn during the eighth inning, when the Stone Crabs scored eight more unanswered runs. They sent 13 batters to the plate in the eighth inning, recording six hits, had three reach via the walk and plated 8 runs to take a 10-0 lead which would become the outcome of the game for both sides. In total, three Palm Beach pitchers were used in the eighth, but it still led to what turned out to be a devastating loss at home at Roger Dean Stadium.
Out of the eight runs that the Cardinals allowed in the eighth inning, seven of said runs were allowed with one out.
The Cardinals will play the Charlotte Stone Crabs again on Saturday night, this time in Charlotte, with the first pitch being at 6:05 PM. The probable pitchers are Blake McKnight for the Cardinals and Benton Moss for the Stone Crabs.
