In their first series of the season, the Palm Beach Cardinals have taken three out of four from the rival Charlotte Stone Crabs. On Sunday, the two teams faced off in the finale, but this time, the game did not take place at Roger Dean Stadium. Instead, the game was played in Charlotte.
And the Cardinals looked to bounce back after their embarrassing 10-0 loss on Saturday night. Starting for the Stone Crabs was Greg Harris, and starting for Palm Beach was Jacob Evans. Once again, the Stone Crabs scored first, this time off of a single by Riley Unroe.
But that was the only miscue that Evans had dealt all game long, as it later turned out to be the only run scored by Charlotte. He threw seven strong innings, allowing just the one run, six hits, striking out four, hitting two batters, and only throwing a total of 80 pitches.
As for the offense, Palm Beach scored two runs in the second inning on a sequence of three hits, a balk, and a sacrifice fly. In the seventh inning, Jeff Cowell of the Stone Crabs allowed an RBI single to Danny Diekroeger, and Edwin Fierro allowed a ninth inning run from Oscar Mercado, who only had entered the game in the first place due to an injury to Andrew Brodback in the ninth.
Rowan Wick threw a 1-2-3 eighth to set up closer Kyle Grana in the ninth for the opportunity to earn the save for Palm Beach, which he did, despite the best efforts of Charlotte to rally back with the bases loaded.
With the 4-1 win, the Palm Beach Cardinals improve to 3-1 on the season, which ties them for not only the best record in the South Division of the Florida State League, but for the best record overall. Starting on Monday, the Cardinals head back to Jupiter, Florida to start a four-game home-stand against the Dunedin Blue Jays.
