6th inning rally, Garcia's Glove power Space Explorers

Viera, Fla. - It took a true team effort for the Brevard County Space Explorers (14-14) to clinch a second straight series win on Friday night. First, it took a shutdown effort from the bullpen, followed by persistence at the plate from the offense and finally, some tremendous defense to give Brevard County a 5-4 win Friday night over the Tampa Yankees (15-14).

    The action began right away as the Yankees took a lead in the opening half inning. It would begin on a one-out bunt single by Tyler Wade. He would steal second with Miguel Andujar at the plate, who then struck out. Mike Ford would then place a floating single into center to bring Wade around to score and give Tampa a 1-0 lead.

 The Space Explorer offense, fresh off one of its best performances of the season, was ready to go on Friday night and responded right away to the deficit. After Chris McFarland singled to left, Taylor Brennan would double over centerfielder Michael O'Neill's head to put two runners in scoring position for Clint Coulter. He would follow with a sacrifice fly to center to tie the game. Victor Roache then came to the plate and hit a blooper down the right field line that fell in between the right fielder, first baseman and second baseman, ultimately resulting in Brennan scoring and Roache winding up on second with a double.

  The lead would until the top of the third inning, which started with a double down the left field lane by the newest Yankee added to the roster, Renzo Martini. That would bring Abiatal Avelino to the plate, who would hit a dribbler up the first base line but his speed would cause Wei-Chung Wang to make an errant throw to first that would get by Garrett Cooper, which would allow Avelino and bring the Yankees level. With Wade at the plate, Wang would be called for a balk, moving Avelino up to second. Wade then singled to left and Avelino was able to dodge Rafael Neda's tag at the plate to put Tampa back in the lead.

   It looked as if the Space Explorers would equalize again in the bottom half as they had runners at the corners with two outs thanks to singles by McFarland and Roache. However, with Cooper at the plate, they would attempt a double steal. Avelino cut off Kyle Higashioka's throw to second and threw home to just get McFarland to end the inning.

  The Yankees would tack on to their lead in the top half of the fourth when Ericson Leonora hit his third home run of the season, an opposite field solo shot to right center estimated at over 400 feet to make it 4-2.

   The game would ultimately be decided in the bottom of the sixth inning. The frame would start with singles to left by Brennan and Coulter. Following a strikeout by Roache, Cooper came to the plate against Yankees starting pitcher Jonathan Holder (1-2, 3.41 ERA) for what would become the game's biggest at-bat. In a lengthy at-bat, Cooper fouled off several pitches from Holder that he ran outside. Cooper finally broke through and took advantage of an enormous gap in left centerfield due to defensive placement, ripping a double that scored both runners to tie the game at four. That would prove to be Holder's final batter of the night, as he was pulled in favor of Angel Rincon. He would get Neda to ground out to short but with Jose Pena up to bat, he would throw a wild pitch that allowed Cooper to move up to third. Pena singled up the middle shortly after that and the Space Explorers had a lead they would not relinquish.

   After two spectacular innings of relief by Tristan Archer (1-0, 0.00 ERA), who gave up only a single to the first batter he faced, the lead would be trusted to Trevor Seidenberger, who would need some help from his defense to make it stand up. Mike Ford led off the top of the eighth with a drive to deep right centerfield and it appeared Tampa would have the tying run in scoring position to start the inning but Omar Garcia would make an incredible sprint to the ball and then went airborne, extending his arms as far as they could go to make the catch for a sensational first out of the inning. Seidenberger then struck out O'Neill and got Danny Oh to fly out to left end the inning.

   In the top of the ninth, Seidenberger would coax a fly out to center from Leonora and a groundout to short from Higashioka but would lose Martini on a walk. When he got

Avelino to pop out to short, the Space Explorers had clinched their second consecutive series win.

 Wang over five innings gave up three earned runs on five hits while walking three and striking out two in a no-decision. Holder would be saddled with the loss, giving up five runs on eight hits, striking out four and walking none in 5.1 innings pitched. Archer and Seidenberger combined to give up just one hit over the final four innings out of the bullpen.

 The Space Explorers will go for their first series sweep on Saturday at 6:35 P.M., RHP Brandon Woodruff (0-1, 6.33) will get the start for Brevard County.