BRADENTON, Fla. - Jose Miranda had three hits for the Miracle, but Fort Myers came up short in a 3-1 loss to the Bradenton Marauders on Wednesday night at LECOM Park. The Miracle, however, still took two out of three games in the series. Miranda's double and two singles were three
BRADENTON, Fla. - Jose Miranda had three hits for the Miracle, but Fort Myers came up short in a 3-1 loss to the Bradenton Marauders on Wednesday night at LECOM Park. The Miracle, however, still took two out of three games in the series.
Miranda's double and two singles were three of the five hits in the game for the Miracle. He finished 5-for-12 in the series with three doubles and two RBI.
Bradenton led wire-to-wire. Dylan Busby launched a two-run home run to deep left in the second inning, his team-leading fifth of the season. The Miracle cut into the deficit with an unearned run in the third that scored on a sacrifice-fly by Mark Contreras. The Marauders added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth.
Cody Bolton (3-0) earned the win for Bradenton. He allowed four hits in six innings with a walk and six strikeouts. Ike Schlabach tossed two perfect innings in relief and Blake Cederlind followed with a scoreless ninth to earn his first save.
Jhoan Duran (0-3) suffered the loss for the Miracle despite five strong innings of work. The right-hander allowed two runs on four hits. He walked one, struck out two, and hit as high as 100 mph on the radar gun. Melvi Acosta pitched the final three innings for the Miracle and allowed an unearned run. He gave up four hits, walked one, and struck out four.
The Miracle went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
Fort Myers returns home to open a four-game series against the first place Palm Beach Cardinals on Thursday night at Hammond Stadium. Left-hander Tyler Watson will start for Fort Myers. First pitch is 6:30 p.m.
