Marauders Shutout in Series Opener 

Tampa, Fla. — The Marauders (24-22) and the Tarpons (19-27) faced off at Steinbrenner Field on a perfect Tuesday evening for baseball in Tampa. Bradenton would be held scoreless across all nine innings and did a fantastic job limiting runs on the defensive side of things but would eventually surrender 15 runs across the final three innings that the Tarpons were at the dish. The home side cruised to a 15-0 to start the series on the front foot.

Tampa starter Ryan Merda and Marauders starter Owen Kellington fired scoreless outings, with Merda hurling six innings and Kellington tossing 2.2 frames. Tampa would combine the efforts of Luis Velasquez and Manny Ramirez to hold Bradenton scoreless late in the game.

The Tarpons scored first in the bottom of the sixth off of a three-run home run and, from there, piled on two more runs in the frame to give themselves a 5-0 lead going into the final three innings.

After the seventh inning stretch, the Tarpons plated four more and showed no signs of stopping as they scored with no outs, one out, and rallied with a pair down in the inning.

Six runs in the bottom of the eighth brought the Tampa lead to 15 runs as they were just three outs from the win, with an incredibly healthy lead to coast on.

The Marauders went down in order in the top of the ninth and fell with just four hits put on the board in the game by the Young Bucs. Bradenton pitching struck out six and walked 16 across the eight innings of offense for Tampa ending the game with a team WHIP of 3.25.

The Marauders will look to bounce back on Wednesday evening at 6:30 back at Steinbrenner Field.