Tortugas Tattoo Tampa, 7-3

DAYTONA BEACH, FL - Shed Long homered twice in the Daytona Tortugas, 7-3, series-tying triumph over the Tampa Yankees on Saturday night at Radiology Associates Field at Jackie Robinson Ballpark in front of 2,781.
Daytona jumped on Tampa RHP Erik Swanson right from the beginning. Gavin LaValley recorded an RBI in the first inning for the second consecutive night, doubling off of the wall in dead center field to plate Long and give the Tortugas a quick lead.
Speaking of Long, the Tortugas second baseman had a huge night at the dish. He went 3-for-4 with two homers, four RBIs, and three runs scored. He went deep to center field in the third and in the fifth innings off of Swanson to extend the Daytona lead to 5-0.
Swanson (1-2) surrendered ten hits and five earned runs, including each of the Long balls, in four innings of work.
The Yankees made the game interesting in the top of the eighth. They sent nine men to the plate, scoring three times to make things close, 5-3. Tito Polo hit an infield knock over the mound to score Gosuke Katoh for the first run. Chris Gittens and Kyle Holder coaxed walks with the bases loaded to force in a pair of runs against RHP Tanner Rainey. Jahlen Jackson struck out with the sacks full against RHP pitcher Jake Ehret to end the threat.
Ehret earned his first save of 2017 by going 1 1/3 innings and yielding one hit while fanning two. He sealed the victory for RHP Vladimir Gutierrez (4-4) who tossed 6 1/3 scoreless frames, allowing just three hits while striking out eight Yankees.
Daytona got some insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth to increase the margin to 7-3. Daniel Sweet scored on Chadwick Tromp's two-run blast over the left field fence after he lead off the stanza with a single. This was the first long ball of the year for the Tortugas catcher.     
The Memorial Day Weekend series concludes with a rubber match Sunday evening at The Jack. Military Appreciation Weekend continues with free admission for all active and retired military personnel. Postgame fireworks and free shirts to the first 500 in the gates also will be given out on Princess and Pirate Night at the park. RHP Jesús Reyes (5-1, 3.38) will face off against Tampa's RHP Taylor Widener (3-4, 3.38) on the bump. First pitch is at 6:35 PM with The Metcare Pregame Show beginning at 6:20 PM on AM 1230 and AM 1490 WSBB.
Notes: The last time the Tortugas nailed three home-runs was back on August 12^th, 2016 at The Jack (a 5-2 victory over Tampa)…Daytona has eight multi-homer games in 2017…Chadwick Tromp went deep for the first time since July 31st, 2016. It was his ninth career home run with Daytona…Shed Long now has 20 multi-hit games on the season and nine three-knock assignments. It was the first multi-homer game of his career…Vladimir Gutierrez has factored in the decision in eight of nine starts this campaign, striking out atleast seven six times