Marauders Salvage Split with Blue Jays

BRADENTON, Fla. — A close game Sunday afternoon grew tighter in the late innings, but the Marauders bullpen held on for a 4-3 win over the Dunedin Blue Jays at LECOM Park.

The win rewarded an outstanding start for Jared Jones (2-2), who struck out eight batters and allowed just one run across a career-high six innings for his first career quality start. It also salvaged the series split for the Marauders (46-31), who avoided losing back-to-back series for the first time this season.

Bradenton grabbed an early 2-0 lead against Blue Jays (34-43) left-hander Naswell Paulino (3-3) in the second inning. Dariel Lopez was hit by a pitch, advanced to third on a double by new Marauder Abrahan Gutierrez, and then scored on an Ernny Ordonez groundout. Kyle Wilkie followed with an infield single that plated Gutierrez from third.

PK Morris answered for Dunedin with a solo homer to left field off Jones in the fourth, bringing the Jays within one run, but in the bottom half, the Marauders re-extended their lead to 3-1 as Gutierrez singled an scored on an Ordonez double to left.

Hudson Head launched a solo homer to left-center in the fifth for a 4-1 Bradenton advantage, but right-hander Sergio Umana faced trouble in the eighth. After tossing a scoreless seventh in relief of Jones, Umana hit Jose Rivas and Willfrann Astudillo with pitches to open the eighth. He recovered for a strikeout, and a groundball to second base followed, but Astudillo evaded the tag from Jase Bowen, who threw to first base for the inning’s second out.

Wandi Montout took over for Umana with two out and loaded the bases with a walk to Miguel Hiraldo. Orelvis Martinez followed with a popup along the first base line that catcher Kyle Wilkie failed to catch, allowing Rivas and Astudillo—both running on contact with two outs—to score, cutting Bradenton’s lead to 4-3. Morris then flied out to right field, ending the threat and stranding the tying and go-ahead runs.

Montout opened the top of the ninth inning with a walk, and after a popout that saw shortstop Maikol Escotto make a difficult catch in shallow left-center, walked another batter. With the tying and go-ahead runs aboard again with one out, Oliver Mateo replaced Montout and got Astudillo to ground a ball to Escotto for a game-ending double play.

The Marauders will travel to Clearwater on Tuesday to open a six-game series against the Clearwater Threshers, Low-A affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. at BayCare Ballpark.

For more information about the Bradenton Marauders, please call (941) 747-3031, visit BradentonMarauders.com, or email [email protected].

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