Marauders Drop Both Games in Doubleheader on Saturday Afternoon

FORT MYERS, FL — In their first doubleheader of the season, the Bradenton Marauders fell 8-3 in game one and 3-1 in game two against the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels on Saturday afternoon at Hammond Stadium. With both losses, Fort Myers wins the series.

In game one, Bradenton jumped ahead in the top of the first against Charlee Soto. Braylon Bishop doubled on the first pitch of the game and scored on an Eddy Rodriguez single later in the inning to give the Marauders a 1-0 advantage. After Fort Myers tied the game at one in the bottom half of the inning, Javier Rivas and Keiner Delgado each belted solo-home runs in the second and third to give the lead back to Bradenton at 3-1.

Fort Myers scored seven unanswered runs after that beginning with a three-run third against Michael Kennedy (1-3). Four of the first five hitters reached with base hits, with runs scoring on a pair of singles from Payton Eeles and Brandon Winokur and a double from Poncho Ruiz.

The Mighty Mussels scored another run in the fourth on an RBI single from Minor League rehabber Brooks Lee before ultimately plating two more in the fifth and another in the sixth on a Ruiz single to close out the game with an 8-3 victory.

Paulshawn Pasqualotto (1-4) tossed 4.1 scoreless frames to end the ballgame to keep Bradenton off the scoreboard.

In game two, the Marauders again scored in the first inning. Jeral Toledo and Eddy Rodriguez racked up back-to-back one-out singles against Ross Dunn to begin the frame. After a fielder’s choice, Esmerlyn Valdez walked to load the bases for Sergio Campana who reached on a catcher’s interference to score Toledo and push the Marauders in front at 1-0.

Khristian Curtis (0-3) had allowed just two hits in four scoreless frames until Fort Myers scored three runs in the fifth. Matthew Clayton singled, and Gregory Duran walked to place two runners on with nobody out. Yohander Martinez singled to left field to score Clayton with a throwing error plating another run to hand the Mighty Mussels their first lead at 2-1. The error allowed Martinez to reach third base and he ended up scoring on a Curtis wild pitch to close out the scoring.

Ricky Castro (1-0) struck out four in two scoreless innings before Nolan Santos (SV,4) struck out all six he faced to end the contest.

Curtis finished his start allowing just two earned runs in a career-high six innings.

Omar Alfonzo singled in the third inning in game one to extend his on-base streak to 16-games before it was snapped in the seventh inning in game two when he entered in as a pinch hitter.

The Marauders and Mighty Mussels wrap up their series at Hammond Stadium on Sunday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 12:05 p.m., with pregame coverage beginning at 11:45 a.m. on the Marauders Broadcast Network.