Lakeland Hands Brevard County Fourth Straight Defeat
By Brevard County Manatees // August 24, 2012
Manatees Meet Clearwater Tonight
BREVARD COUNTY • VIERA, FLORIDA – The Brevard County Manatees dropped their fourth game in a row and seventh consecutive to the Lakeland Flying Tigers by the score of 10-2 on Thursday night at Space Coast Stadium.
Manatees (29-30 second half, 58-69 overall) starting pitcher Matt Miller (1-2, 9.00) was touched up for five runs – four earned – on eight hits in five innings of work. He yielded eight hits and three walks, while striking out seven in his third start with Brevard County. Lakeland (33-25, 69-54) jumped on Miller and the ‘Tees early as the scored three runs in the second off of three hits, two walks and a hit by pitch.
Down 4-0, Brevard was able to cut Lakeland’s lead in half in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a two-out, two-run home run by Cody Hawn, his 11th of the season.
The Flying Tigers plated an insurance run in the fifth off of Miller to take a 5-2 lead, but were then shut down for the next three innings by Tommy Toledo. Toledo allowed just one hit and walked two in three scoreless innings of relief.
Brevard County though was unable to cut into Lakeland’s lead as they struck out 12 times on the night, went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.
Lakeland blew the game wide open in the top of the ninth as they roughed up Thomas Keeling for five runs on four hits and three walks, to take a 10-2 lead.
Jason Rogers and Joey Paciorek accounted for five of Brevard’s six hits as Rogers went 3-for-3 and Paciorek was 2-for-4 with a double.
Rogers has been the ‘Tees hottest hitter as of late, as he is hitting .526 (10-for-19) in his last five games and batting .384 (28-for-73) in the month of August.
The Manatees will look to snap their four-game skid as they welcome the Clearwater Threshers (32-26, 68-56) to Viera for a three-game set in the final home series of the regular season for the ‘Tees.
Taylor Jungmann (10-6, 3.59) will toe the rubber for the ‘Tees in Friday’s series opener at 6:35 p.m., as he is looking to become the second 11-game winner in the Florida State League this season. Jungmann has been lights out in August with a 2-0 record and a 1.69 ERA in four starts.
