Almonte’s Blast Helps Build Big Lead as Tortugas Hang on, 7-5

JUPITER, Fla—Ariel Almonte crushed his ninth home run of the season and the Daytona Tortugas built a six-run lead before hanging on to secure a series victory with a 7-5 win over the Palm Beach Cardinals on Saturday night at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium.

Daytona (16-10) secured their first series win over Palm Beach (15-11) at Roger Dean since May, 2021 as they have won four of the first five in the series.

In the top of the first, Daytona mounted a rally right away against Palm Beach’s Jose Davila. Ricardo Cabrera reached on an infield single and went to second on a throwing error. Dominic Pitelli followed with a bunt single to put runners on the corners with no outs for Alfredo Duno, who lifted a sacrifice fly to right to score Cabrera to put Daytona up 1-0.

Jose Franco successfully navigated out of a two-on, no-out jam in the first, leading into a two-out rally for Daytona in the second. After Davila struck out the first two batters of the inning, Trey Faltine was plunked, then came all the way home on a double by Cabrera. Pitelli followed with a base hit up the middle to score Cabrera, pushing the Daytona lead to 3-0.

Franco settled down, striking out three as he worked around a one-out walk in the second before throwing a 1-2-3 third.

Daytona added a run in the fourth as Malvin Valdez singled to begin the inning, moved to second on a groundout, then scored on a Trey Faltine RBI single to stretch the lead to 4-0.

However, Palm Beach responded against Franco as Jose Cordoba roped a one-out double to left to put the Cardinals on the board. The Daytona right-hander, though, responded by striking out the next two batters to end the inning and his outing, striking out seven batters over 4.0 innings of one-run ball.

Franco handed off the 4-1 lead to Simon Miller who bridged the gap with a scoreless fifth inning, eliminating a one-out walk with a bizarre 5-3-6 double play to end the inning, putting Miller (2-1) in line for the victory.

Daytona restored the four-run advantage in the sixth as Connor Burns led off with a single, moved to second on a groundout, then scored when Johnny Ascanio blooped a single to shallow center to make it 5-1. Nick Sando then came out of the bullpen for Daytona and threw a scoreless bottom of the sixth, striking out a pair as he brushed off a one-out walk.

The Tortugas added to that lead in the top of the seventh as Duno singled with one out, bringing up Almonte, who ambushed a first-pitch fastball from Benjamin Arias and completely annihilated it over the right-field fence for his league-leading ninth home run, pushing the lead to 7-1.

Palm Beach, though, did not go down quietly as the Cardinal bats came alive in the seventh. Aided by four walks, the Cardinals stroked three hits and scored four times as they sent ten men to the plate in the inning. Cody Adcock was called upon to record the final two outs of the inning and he did, allowing an inherited run to score as the lead was trimmed to 7-5.

Daytona loaded the bases in the top of the eighth with one out, but failed to score. However, the extra runs weren’t needed as Adcock worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth. In the ninth, he hit the leadoff man, but struck out the next three, working the final 2.2 innings with five strikeouts to nail down his first save of the season, securing the 7-5 win.

The two teams will finish the series in Palm Beach on Sunday afternoon. Daytona will start RHP Brian Edgington (0-1, 1.99), while Palm Beach will counter with RHP Chen-Wei Lin (2-1, 1.64). First pitch from Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. with pregame coverage on the Tortugas Radio network with Brennan Mense begins at 11:45 a.m.