Manatees Edge Palm Beach Behind Jungmann
By Brevard County Manatees // July 22, 2012
Series Continues Tonight
BREVARD COUNTY • VIERA, FLORIDA – The Brevard County Manatees won their fifth one-run game out of their last 10n games overall, as they topped the Palm Beach Cardinals, 4-3 on Saturday night at Space Coast Stadium.
Manatees starting pitcher Taylor Jungmann (8-5, 3.67) earned his team-leading eighth win of the season as he allowed three runs in five innings. The 2011 first round draft pick yielded nine hits and struck out just one, but did not walk a batter.
Brevard County (17-12 second half, 46-51 overall) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, thanks to back-to-back RBI hits with one out. Jason Rogers doubled home Nick Shaw to get the scoring started and Rogers would score one batter later on a Mike Walker single to left.
Jungmann would run into his only real trouble in the game in the top of the fourth. The inning started with James Ramsey legging out an infield single to first. Alan Ahmady then tripled on a ball that center fielder Reggie Keen took a bad angle on to make it a 2-1 game.
Chris Edmondson would drive home Ahmady to tie the game on Palm Beach’s second infield single of the inning. Back-to-back singles from Geoffrey Kline and Rainel Rosario then gave the Cardinals (14-16, 45-52) a 3-2 lead with runners on second and third with no outs.
Jungmann though would pitch around those five consecutive hits as he got Tyler Rahmatulla to fly out to center and Neal Pritchard to ground into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.
The Manatees would regain the lead in the fifth as John Dishon led off the inning with a single to shallow left. He was then sacrificed over by Nick Shaw and would move to third on a wild pitch that was thrown with Reggie Keen at the dish. Later in Keen’s at-bat, Dishon would score the tying run on a balk by Palm Beach starting pitcher Scott Schneider.
Three consecutive singles by Keen, Rogers and Mike Walker would then load the bases for Brock Kjeldgaard. Kjeldgaard would give Brevard the lead on a sacrifice fly to center, but that’s all the ‘Tees would get as Rogers was thrown out trying to tag to third to end the inning.
The duo of Eric Marzec and Casey Medlen out of the Manatees’ bullpen would hold the Cards the rest of the way as they each threw two scoreless innings, with Medlen earning his 14th save of the season.
Keen, Rogers and Walker had two hits each for Brevard as the ‘Tees won for the fifth time in their last six games. Also with the win and a loss by the Tampa Yankees, the Manatees are in a three-way tie for first place in the North division.
Brevard County will look to take the series from Palm Beach as the two teams close out their four-game set on Sunday beginning at 5:05 p.m.
Drew Gagnon (0-0, 3.04) will take the hill for the ‘Tees as he is still looking for his first win with Brevard County. Gagnon has given up no more than three runs and pitched no less than five innings in his first four starts with the Manatees.
Palm Beach will give the ball to southpaw Ryan Sherriff (5-1, 3.51), who is 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA in three July starts.
