Long balls lift Stone Crabs past Mets 6-1

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (May 31, 2019) - The Charlotte Stone Crabs used a pair of home runs to power past the St. Lucie Mets 6-1 at Charlotte Sports Park Friday.
Stone Crabs (28-26) infielders Taylor Walls and Jim Haley each delivered homers against St. Lucie (27-27) starter Dedniel Nunez (0-1) as Charlotte jumped in front early.
Crabs starter Joe Ryan (2-2) spun a career-high 6.2 scoreless innings, striking out eight while only allowing two hits. Jack Labosky allowed one run over the final 2.1 frames to finish off the win. Friday's shutout was the Stone Crabs' fourth of the season, and the second in the last four days.
In a scoreless game in the bottom of the first, Thomas Milone lined a leadoff single to right. Moises Gomez then stroked a base hit to center to put runners at first and second. On the first pitch to Walls, he clobbered a three-run shot to right to make it 3-0 Stone Crabs.
Still up by that count in the bottom of the third, Walls singled to center. Two batters later, Haley cranked a two-run dinger to left to extend the lead to 5-0.
Up five in the fifth, Charlotte catcher Ronaldo Hernandez led off the inning with a double to the left field corner. After Hernandez advanced to third on a Haley groundout, he came in to score on a wild pitch to bring the tally to 6-0.
Haley capped an incredible month of May on a high note, collecting two more hits and RBI in Friday's victory. The Penn State product finished the month batting .318 with six home runs and 26 RBI in 27 games. The Stone Crabs finished the month with a 17-12 record.
Charlotte will go for the series victory Saturday at 6 p.m. Tobias Myers (5-1, 2.80) is slated to make the start against Kyle Wilson (3-5, 4.09) of the Mets. Coverage begins at 5:45 p.m. on the Stone Crabs Baseball Network.