Ryan, Stone Crabs take down Tarpons 5-2

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (July 12, 2019) - The Charlotte Stone Crabs rallied for four runs in the first inning and got another outstanding start from Joe Ryan to take down the Tampa Tarpons 5-2 at Charlotte Sports Park Friday.
Ryan (6-2) tied a career-high with 6.2 innings, allowing just one run on four hits. He struck out five to climb into second place in Minor League Baseball with 125 punchouts for the season, lowering his Florida State League ERA to 1.76.
Charlotte (54-35, 19-4) did most of their damage in the first inning against Tampa (39-51, 11-13) starter Trevor Stephan (0-3). In a scoreless game in the bottom of the first, Wander Franco walked before Ronaldo Hernandez lined an RBI triple down the first base line to make it 1-0. The next batter was Jim Haley , who smoked a single to center to chase home Hernandez and make it 2-0. After Haley stole second, Moises Gomez drove an RBI double to the gap in left center to extend the lead to 3-0. Two batters later, Carl Chester drove in Gomez with an infield single to cap the rally at 4-0 Charlotte.
After Tampa scored in the second on a Wilkerman Garcia sacrifice fly, Haley responded with a solo home run to left in the fifth, his seventh of the year to make it 5-1.
Stone Crabs right-hander Mikey York allowed one run over the final 2.1 innings to finish off the victory.
Charlotte has now won 10 consecutive games, the longest streak in franchise history.
The Stone Crabs will send Ian Gardeck to the mound at 6 p.m. for a bullpen game on Saturday. Jio Orozco (2-2, 3.16) will make the start for Tampa. Coverage begins at 5:45 p.m. on the Stone Crabs Baseball Network.