The Palm Beach Cardinals dropped the series finale on Thursday afternoon against the Bradenton Marauders, losing by the score of 4-2. On Friday afternoon, they kicked off a home-home series against the Jupiter Hammerheads at Roger Dean Stadium.
Thanks in part to multiple miscues by their opponents, the Cardinals notched their 10th victory, winning 9-5.
Jacob Evans got the start on the mound for Palm Beach, with Jeff Brigham starting for Jupiter.
Right away, the Cardinals were able to get on the board. In the first inning, Oscar Mercado was hit by a pitch, later stealing second, and advancing to third following a throwing error. Danny Diekroeger walks, and Casey Grayson got hit by a pitch as well, loading up the bases with one out. Brigham bounced back by striking out Blake Drake, but Allen Staton doubled to left field, clearing the bases and making it 3-0 Palm Beach.
Jupiter also scored in the first, their lone run of the inning coming from a home run off the bat of Dexter Kjerstad, his second home run of the season.
The big inning by the Cardinals came in the third, when they were able to tally five runs to turn a two-run game into a seven-run game, and essentially pulling the game out of reach. In the inning, Grayson and Drake kicked things off with back-to-back singles. Brigham was then taken out of the game, but the damage continued. A missed catch allowed Staton to reach base, scoring Grayson and advancing Drake to third. Drake then scored on a sacrifice fly by Nick Thompson.
With Darren Seferina at the plate, a wild pitch scored Staton, and Mercado reached base on yet another fielding error by Jupiter (they committed a team-high four errors during the game). By the time the inning was over, it was 8-1 Cardinals.
The Hammerheads were able to tack on one run in the sixth, and three in the seventh, but Palm Beach netted one more in the eighth, and held that lead en route to their 9-5 victory.
Matt Pearce will get the start for the Cardinals on Saturday.
