Mighty Mussels Secure Second Consecutive Series Win, Blank Flying Tigers 5-0
BOX SCORE LAKELAND, Fla. (June 6, 2026) - The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels tossed their second shutout win of the week to secure their second consecutive series win, defeating the Lakeland Flying Tigers 5-0 on Saturday night at Joker Marchant Stadium. The shutout win was the eighth of the season
LAKELAND, Fla. (June 6, 2026) - The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels tossed their second shutout win of the week to secure their second consecutive series win, defeating the Lakeland Flying Tigers 5-0 on Saturday night at Joker Marchant Stadium.
The shutout win was the eighth of the season for the Mighty Mussels (33-23), good for a tie for second in all of affiliated baseball (MLB and MiLB) and trailing only the Arkansas Travelers (SEA, Double-A) who have nine such victories.
The Mussels have now won four of their first ten series of the year, with three splits and three losses through their first 56 games. The Mussels sit just 2.0 games behind the Clearwater Threshers with 10 games left in the first half of the season.
The team has a +68 run differential on the season, good for second in all of Single-A. The club’s 3.65 ERA paces all full-season MiLB affiliates.
Fort Myers has outscored Lakeland (26-29) 40-20 over the first five games of the series and is 10 games over .500 for the first time since August 31, 2024.
Leading off the first, Dameury Pena connected on a double to left-center field. He would later score on a ground out off the bat of Ramiro Dominguez to make it 1-0.
Pena finished the night with two hits, giving him 62 on the season and adding to his Florida State League lead. It was his 21st multi-hit game of the season in 48 games played.
In the third, Jayson Bass connected on a one-out single. Graham Brown followed with a towering homer to left, his first as an affiliated professional, which made it 3-0. The blast left his bat at 105 mph.
Mussels’ starter Merit Jones was solid in his second outing of the week. The righty spun four shutout innings and struck out six batters while throwing 41 of his 64 pitches for strikes. Jones struck out the final four hitters he faced.
On the week, Jones threw nine innings in his pair of starts and allowed two runs while striking out 14. For the season, he now leads the FSL with 52.1 IP and paces qualified pitchers with a 3.10 ERA.
In the sixth, Quentin Young drew a leadoff walk. Two batters later, Brown pulled his second hit of the night to put two aboard. With two outs, Irvin Nunez dropped a double into shallow center, out of the reach of a diving Nick Dumesnil, to bring both men home and make it 5-0.
Left-hander Jake Murray covered the fifth and sixth innings. He retired six of the seven he faced and threw 18 of his 22 pitches for strikes.
Eric Hammond recorded eight outs across the seventh, eighth, and ninth before Michael Hilker Jr. got the final out of the game.
The 2:20 minute time of game marked the shortest nine inning contest of the season.
The series concludes on Sunday, June 7. Fort Myers will send Ramiro Villanueva (2.66) to the mound, opposite Charlie Christenson (1.64) who starts for Lakeland. First pitch is scheduled for 12 p.m.