Mighty Mussels claim series with 5-4 win over Bradenton

FORT MYERS, Fla. (June 18, 2022) – The Mighty Mussels plated four runs in the fourth inning Saturday and hung on for a 5-4 victory to claim the series over the Bradenton Marauders at Hammond Stadium.

Kala’i Rosario got the inning off to a bang with a long two-run home run to center to give Fort Myers (39-22) a 2-1 lead. After a single from Dillon Tatum, Luis Baez slashed a hit the other way to extend the lead to 3-1. The next batter was Jake Rucker, who smoked a base hit up the middle to cap the inning at 4-1 Mussels.

Rosario is hitting .320 with three homers and 8 RBI (.962 OPS) over 14 games in the month of June, by far his best month of the season.

With Fort Myers still leading 4-1 in the fifth, Noah Cardenas walked before stealing second. After a groundout advanced him to third, Cardenas came home on a Bradenton (27-35) balk to make it 5-1.

However, the Marauders came back in the top of the eight, stringing together three consecutive hits to make it 5-3. After a walk loaded the bases, Regi Grace Jr. issues a wild pitch to cut the margin to 5-4. With two outs, Grace Jr. managed to strike out Wyatt Hendrie to maintain the lead.

John Wilson worked a scoreless ninth to notch his second save of the season. Marco Raya started for Fort Myers and fanned five of the nine batters he faced. Matt Mullenbach (3-0) followed and fanned four over 2.1 innings to get the win. Niklas Rimmel then spun two scoreless innings of relief.

The Mussels and Marauders will wrap up their six-game series at 1 p.m. on Sunday. RHP Mike Paredes (2-2, 2.57) is slated to start for Fort Myers, opposed by RHP Jake Sweeney (1-0, 3.78) of Bradenton. Coverage begins at 12:45 p.m. on the Mighty Mussels Baseball Network.