Bradenton Marauders 4, St. Lucie Mets 2
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Starter Philip Irwin breezed through 5 scoreless innings for the Marauders, and allowed just one hit and one walk with 2 strikeouts. That earned him his first win of the season. Brett Lorin added 2.2 more scoreless frames, and struck out 6 of the 10 batters he faced.
The Marauders got onto the scoreboard in the bottom of the 1st inning, courtesy of 2B Jarek Cunningham’s first of three hits, and an RBI single by 1B Aaron Baker. The Marauders’ bats were relatively quiet for the next six innings, until LF Adalberto Santos got on base in the bottom of the 8th, stole second, then scored on SS Benji Gonzalez’s RBI double. Cunningham sealed the deal with a 2-run homer, bringing in Gonzalez for a 4-0 lead.
Jhonathan Ramos finished the top of the 8th for Lorin, then came back to pitch the 9th. Ramos gave up a double, and a 2-run homer for the only Mets’ runs of the game.
Augusta GreenJackets 7, West Virginia Power 6
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A 3-run rally in the top of the 8th was not enough for the Power to squeeze past the GreenJackets.
Starter Colton Cain was the victim of two errors in the bottom of the 1st — a fielding error by 3B Eric Avila and a missed catch by 2B Drew Maggi. That gave the Green Jackets 4 unearned runs.
The Power batters were led by SS Gift Ngoepe, who doubled and singled three times, and DH Justin Howard, who singled and doubled, and collected 2 RBI. The Power took advantage of Augusta miscues, scoring one run in the 4th and two more in the 5th, and only one of their runs was earned.
Augusta scored one more run off Cain in the bottom of the 5th, then they added 2 runs off Zach Foster in the 7th, for a 7-3 lead. The Power came back with 3 runs in the top of the 8th on three singles (one by Ngoepe) and two walks, to get within one run of Augusta. That was all they could get, though, and Augusta held on for the win. Kevin Decker finished the 5th inning for Cain, then pitched a scoreless 6th.
