Bats break out, Campbell shines in 6-3 win over Fort Myers

Whitley, Hernandez crush first High-A homers

Garrett Whitley connected on his first High-A home run Thursday. (Photo: Jim Donten)

By John Vittas

April 18, 2019

FORT MYERS, Fla. (April 18, 2019) - The Stone Crabs' bats busted out and Paul Campbell turned in a career performance as Charlotte bested the Fort Myers Miracle 6-3 Thursday night at Hammond Stadium.Campbell (1-2) went a career-high 6.2 innings of shutout ball, surrendering only one hit and one walk

FORT MYERS, Fla. (April 18, 2019) - The Stone Crabs' bats busted out and Paul Campbell turned in a career performance as Charlotte bested the Fort Myers Miracle 6-3 Thursday night at Hammond Stadium.
Campbell (1-2) went a career-high 6.2 innings of shutout ball, surrendering only one hit and one walk while fanning five. He retired the final 12 batters he faced.
The Stone Crabs (5-10) snapped a stretch of 10 straight games scoring four runs or less, producing their second largest offensive output (six runs) of the season. Thursday marked their first road win of the season.
In a scoreless game in the top of the second, Ronaldo Hernandez walked before Carl Chester and Zach Rutherford both singled to load the bases. After a pop out, Zac Law drove in Hernandez with a fielder's choice to give Charlotte a 1-0 lead.
Still up by one in the top of the fifth, Garrett Whitley clobbered a solo home run to left to extend the lead to 2-0. It was Whitley's first home run since 2017 after he missed all of 2018 with a shoulder injury.
In the top of the sixth, Hernandez lined a solo home run over the berm in left to make it 3-0. It was also Hernandez' first home run at the Advanced-A level.
With Charlotte leading by three runs in the top of the seventh, Rutherford lined a single to left before Whitley clobbered an RBI double to the wall in left center to give the Stone Crabs a 4-0 lead. After Law walked, the Crabs executed a double steal to move runners to second and third. The next batter was Tyler Frank , who pulled a single into left to score Whitley and make it 5-0. After Moises Gomez walked, Jim Haley drove in Law with a sacrifice fly to make it 6-0.
The Miracle (9-6) plated three runs in the ninth against Orlando Romero , but Alex Valverde came in to get the final two outs and seal the win.
The Stone Crabs will go for the series victory at 6:30 p.m. Friday. Riley O'Brien (1-0, 3.38) makes the start for Charlotte against Bailey Ober (1-0, 0.00) of Fort Myers. Coverage begins at 6:15 p.m. on the Stone Crabs Baseball Network.