Stone Crabs eliminated with pair of losses Saturday

BRADENTON, Fla. (September 2, 2017) - The Bradenton Marauders handed the Charlotte Stone Crabs a pair of shutout losses Saturday at LECOM Park, eliminating the Stone Crabs from postseason contention.
2017 marks the second consecutive season that the Stone Crabs (69-65, 38-28) will not reach the playoffs. They won the Florida State League Championship in 2015.
Charlotte was held to just six hits over 13 innings Saturday, dropping their games 5-0 and 1-0 in 10 innings.
In Game 1, the Stone Crabs entered the seventh inning in a scoreless game before Bradenton (69-62, 32-32) rallied for five runs over three innings against Charlotte reliever Reece Karalus (4-1). James Marvel (1-0) pitched six scoreless innings on Friday to earn the win.
In Game 2, Travis Ott worked six scoreless innings for Charlotte, allowing only two hits while striking out six. Bret Helton was just as good on the other side, striking out seven over eight shutout innings, allowing only two hits.
The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the tenth. Alfredo Reyes began the inning with a bloop single to right. The next two batters reached on sacrifice bunts in which the Stone Crabs failed to throw out the lead runner in time. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Ke'Bryan Hayes lifted a sacrifice fly to right to win the game for Bradenton.
The Stone Crabs will wrap up their 2017 campaign on Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. Eduar Lopez (9-8, 3.49) makes the start for Charlotte, against Logan Sendelbach (4-6, 3.58) of Bradenton. Coverage begins at 10:15 a.m. on the Stone Crabs Baseball Network.