Stone Crabs sweep Mets with matching 3-hit shutouts

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (July 12, 2018) - Riley O'Brien and Willy Ortiz turned in matching three-hit shutouts in a pair of seven inning wins over the St. Lucie Mets Thursday at Charlotte Sports Park.
O'Brien (2-1) and Ortiz (6-2) both earned the first shutouts of their professional careers, each going seven innings while allowing three hits. O'Brien struck out five and walked two, while Ortiz fanned six and walked three. Thursday's wins were the first individual shutouts of seven innings or more by a Charlotte (45-43, 11-10) pitcher this season.
In game one, the scoring opened in the bottom of the fourth on a double from Jermaine Palacios that scored Jesús Sánchez after he singled to lead off the inning. The next batter was Jake Fraley , who singled on a bunt to advance Palacios to third.
Rene Pinto then singled to right which scored Palacios to make it 2-0. Kevin Padlo followed with a single to left which plated Fraley to make it 3-0. Two batters later, Josh Lowe singled to left to score Pinto before Padlo was thrown out at home. The next batter was Robbie Tenerowicz , who reached on a throwing error to score Joey Roach and cap the inning at 5-0.
The Stone Crabs tacked on one more run in the sixth on a Sanchez groundout to beat St. Lucie (34-53, 7-13) 6-0.
In game two, the scoring began in the bottom of the first when Sanchez hit a hard single to center to score Lowe after Lowe doubled to right with one out.
Up 1-0 in the bottom of the fourth, back-to-back singles from Sanchez and Pinto put runners at first and second with one out. Jake Fraley then singled to left to chase home Sanchez and make the score 2-0.
The Stone Crabs added two more in the fifth on a sac fly from Lowe and a single courtesy of Tenerowicz.
After taking three out of four games from St. Lucie, the Stone Crabs will visit the Jupiter Hammerheads at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Blake Bivens (5-2, 2.21) makes the start for Charlotte.