For the third straight game, the Palm Beach Cardinals and Dunedin Blue Jays went into extra innings at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium. The first two games resulted in victories for Dunedin, in ten innings and 13 innings, respectively. But this time, the Cardinals edged out the Blue Jays.
Palm Beach left-fielder Orlando Olivera hit a sacrifice fly in the top of the tenth off of Blue Jays’ pitcher Matt Dermody, and it eventually turned out to be the winning run for the Cardinals, who are now 8-4 on the season. Before heading into extra innings, the two teams were tied at 2-2, later 5-5, and 6-6 as well, until Palm Beach finally won 7-6.
During the bottom of the tenth inning, the Blue Jays had a chance to walk-off for their third straight with, as the bases were loaded with Kyle Grana on the mound for the Cardinals. But with one out, Grana struck out designated hitter Jason Leblebijian and with two outs got Ryan McBroom to line out to center field to end the game, putting the Cardinals back on the win column.
Both of the game’s starters (Connor Greene for Dunedin, and Matt Pearce for Palm Beach) got no-decisions.
With a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning, the Cardinals were able to pull away from the Blue Jays, for at least a little while, garnering themselves a 5-2 lead. Dunedin then took the lead in the seventh inning when Emilio Guerrero singled to score Leblebijian. Guerrero, who was making his season debut for the Blue Jays, went 4-for-4 with 2 RBIs, a run, a double and a walk.
The series finale between these two teams will take place on Monday night with first pitch of the game set for 6:30 pm. Tom Robson gets the start for Dunedin, while left-handed pitcher Ian McKinney gets the start for Palm Beach.
