Blue Jays Sink Brevard County Manatees

By  //  August 10, 2012

Important Series Against Tampa Starts Tonight

BREVARD COUNTY • VIERA, FLORIDA – The Brevard County Manatees fell behind early and couldn’t catch up as they fell 7-2 to the Dunedin Blue Jays on Thursday night at Space Coast Stadium in the final game of a three-game set.

Brevard County reliever Seth Harvey struck out five in three innings of work while allowing one run on two hits against Dunedin on Thursday. (Image courtesy Brevard County Manatees)

Manatees’ (25-22 second half, 54-61 overall) starting pitcher Drew Gagnon (0-2, 3.83) was touched up for five runs on five hits in five innings of work. He walked three and fanned four and is still winless in eight starts with Brevard County.

Dunedin (24-23, 66-48) took a 2-0 lead in the first inning thanks to back-to-back RBI doubles by Kevin Pillar and Jon Talley off of Gagnon. The ‘Tees though would get one run back in the bottom of the inning as Reggie Keen and Nick Shaw led off the inning with back-to-back singles and then Keen scored on a Mike Walker ground out.

The Blue Jays took a 3-1 lead in the second on a two-out RBI single from Jonathan Jones. Brevard would again cut Dunedin’s lead to one run in the third on a two-out RBI single from Shea Vucinich that scored Jason Rogers.

That would be all that the Manatees would get however as Dunedin padded its lead in the fourth starting with a lead-off double by Marcus Knecht and a walk drawn by Jon Berti. Two batters later, Jonathan Jones would clear the bases with a single to center as the ‘Tees fell behind 5-2.

After Dunedin’s starter Sean Nolin departed the game after three innings, the Manatees were held in check by the Blue Jays’ bullpen as Brevard could only muster three hits in the last six innings.

Seth Harvey relieved Gagnon and struck out five in three innings of work, while allowing one run on two hits. Tommy Toledo pitched one inning and allowed one run as well.

Rogers and Vucinich led the way at the dish for the ‘Tees as they had two hits each. Rogers is hitting .342 in his last ten games, while Vucinich is hitting .305 in the second half of the season.

The Manatees are now four games behind the division-leading Tampa Yankees (29-18, 59-55), who come to Viera for a three-game series beginning on Friday night at 6:35 p.m.

Nick Bucci (0-0, 0.00) will get the ball for Brevard, while Tampa will counter with Jose A. Ramirez (5-5, 3.62).