After winning their 11th game of the season on Tuesday, the Palm Beach Cardinals once again faced off against the Bradenton Marauders.
This time, the result was quite different.
Bradenton scored in four different innings on Wednesday night, as Blake McKnight dropped to 0-2 on the season, as Palm Beach lost 6-1.
Austin Coley got the start for Bradenton, and pitched a solid 5 1/3 innings for the Marauders, and ended up beating Palm Beach for the second time this season. He walked four batters and struck out only one, but aside from a run allowed in the first inning, he pitched a shutout. As for McKnight, things were going fine until the bottom of the fourth inning, when the Marauder’s third baseman, Connor Joe, singled home Pablo Reyes to tie the game at 1-1.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, after already plating across another run in the fifth, Bradenton scored three more runs to make it a 5-1 lead. Michael Suhey started the inning with a walk, followed by a sacrifice by Edwin Escobar. Kevin Newman singled to put runners on the corners with one out. Kevin Kramer then hit a sacrifice of his own to score the first run of the inning. McKnight soon after was pulled from the game, and a two-run double not too longer after helped Bradenton pull away from Palm Beach.
Reliever Junior Lopez entered the game to replace Coley in the sixth inning, as he looked to maintain Bradenton’s lead. In the seventh and eight innings of the game, the Cardinals started off with lead-off doubles, but despite that, they came up short in both innings, not scoring a single run, as Lopez shut them down. Miguel Rosario pitched a scoreless ninth inning to give the Marauders the victory on the evening.
The series finale will take place Thursday night at 6:30, with Jacob Evans getting the start for the Cardinals.
