FORT MYERS, Fla. (April 19, 2019) - Michael Helman delivered a walk-off, opposite field home run to break a 1-1 tie Friday as the Fort Myers Miracle beat the Stone Crabs 3-1 at Hammond Stadium. In a tie game in the bottom of the ninth, Ryan Jeffers singled to center
FORT MYERS, Fla. (April 19, 2019) - Michael Helman delivered a walk-off, opposite field home run to break a 1-1 tie Friday as the Fort Myers Miracle beat the Stone Crabs 3-1 at Hammond Stadium.
In a tie game in the bottom of the ninth, Ryan Jeffers singled to center with two outs against Charlotte (5-11) reliever Chandler Raiden (1-1). The next batter was Helman, who lined a ball to right that cleared the wall to win the game for Fort Myers (10-6).
Charlotte starter Riley O'Brien turned in seven scoreless innings in the loss, striking out five while only allowing four hits. The right-hander retired 15 of the last 18 batters he saw.
In a scoreless game in the top of the fifth, Stone Crabs shortstop Zach Rutherford stroked a one-out single against Miracle starter Bailey Ober. After a walk to Garrett Whitley moved Rutherford to second, Russ Olive grounded a ball to Fort Myers shortstop Royce Lewis. Lewis tried to start a difficult double play, but flipped the ball over the head of Helman, allowing Rutherford to score and make it 1-0 Charlotte.
The Stone Crabs held that lead until the bottom of the eighth. Raiden came in and allowed a walk to Helman before Aaron Whitefield grounded a single to left. Three batters later, Trevor Larnach lined a two-out single to right to score Helman and tie the game at one.
The teams will meet for a rubber game at 6 p.m. on Saturday. Tommy Romero (0-0, 1.98) will be on the mound for Charlotte, against Charlie Barnes (1-1, 7.36) of the Miracle. Coverage starts at 5:45 p.m. on the Stone Crabs Baseball Network.
