Long’s two-homer night leads Jacksonville to 11-7 win over Norfolk
NORFOLK, Va. – A two-homer, five-RBI night for Jonathon Long powered the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp to an 11-7 win over the Norfolk Tides Saturday night at Harbor Park. With Jacksonville up by one in the top of the seventh, Long (14) blasted a solo shot to lead off the frame
NORFOLK, Va. – A two-homer, five-RBI night for Jonathon Long powered the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp to an 11-7 win over the Norfolk Tides Saturday night at Harbor Park.
With Jacksonville up by one in the top of the seventh, Long (14) blasted a solo shot to lead off the frame and push the Jumbo Shrimp advantage to 9-7. After Matthew Etzel led off the ninth with a walk, Long (15) hit his second home run of the night to set the final margin at 11-7.
Patrick Monteverde (W, 4-2) tossed five innings with five strikeouts, Holt Jones pitched a scoreless sixth and seventh to earn his second hold of the season and Wikelman Gonzalez (SV, 2) locked down the win with two shutout frames.
Norfolk opened the scoring in the bottom of the first when Jud Fabian walked and scored on a Jeremiah Jackson (3) two-run home run. Jose Barrero singled two batters later to set up a run-scoring triple from Luis Vasquez to open up a 3-0 lead.
The Jumbo Shrimp wasted no time getting themselves back in the game in the second against Norfolk starter Cade Povich (L, 2-5). Brandon Compton (2) launched his 35th home run of the season across three minor league levels to leadoff the inning and begin a stretch of eight unanswered runs for Jacksonville. Kemp Alderman walked and scored on a Gage Miller (7) two-run homer to tie the game at three.
Jacksonville rallied for two more in the third to take the lead. Juan Matheus singled and Etzel doubled to bring up Long, who singled to score Matheus and move Etzel to third. Etzel crossed home on an Alderman fielder’s choice groundball to put the Jumbo Shrimp ahead 5-3.
A three-spot in the fourth improved Jacksonville’s lead to 8-3. Back-to-back walks from Maximo Acosta and Garret Forrester opened the frame and Brendan Jones roped a double to the right field corner to plate Acosta. Etzel grounded out to score Forrester and Jones scored on another Long RBI single.
Norfolk mounted a comeback beginning in the bottom of the fourth. Consecutive singles from Creed Willems and Barrero set up Bryan Ramos, who grounded to third, leading to a throwing error that scored Willems. Ramos then stole second, Ryan Noda walked and Sam Huff (5) brought everybody home with a three-run shot to make it an 8-7 ballgame.
The series concludes Sunday at 1:05 p.m. with righty Trey Gibson (3-5, 3.96) starting for the Tides against an expected Jumbo Shrimp bullpen game. Coverage begins at 12:50 p.m. on ESPN 690 and espn690.com.
ABOUT THE JUMBO SHRIMP: The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp are the Triple-A affiliate of the Miami Marlins and compete in the International League. The 2025 International League and Triple-A National Champions, the Jumbo Shrimp call VyStar Ballpark home for baseball but also a wide variety of additional community focused events with a goal of providing Affordable, Family, FUN to Northeast Florida. Winners of many marketing and sales awards and recognition since the team was rebranded prior to the 2017 season, the Jumbo Shrimp continually lead the state of Florida in attendance across all minor league professional sports organizations.