Manatees Win Fourth Straight By Edging Palm Beach
By Brevard County Manatees // July 20, 2012
Hall Earns Fourth Win Of Year
BREVARD COUNTY • VIERA, FLORIDA – The Brevard County Manatees won their fourth straight game as they edged the Palm Beach Cardinals, 4-3 in the series opener between the two teams on Thursday night at Space Coast Stadium.
Manatees starting pitcher Brooks Hall (4-3, 3.97) gave Brevard a quality outing as he allowed two runs on four hits in six innings of work. He walked three and struck out a season-high six hitters. In his last five starts, Hall is 3-0 with a 2.67 ERA.
The ‘Tees (16-11 second half, 45-50 overall) jumped on the board first to give Hall run support in the third inning. With one out in the frame, John Dishon tripled to right field and would score one batter later on a RBI single off the bat of Nick Shaw.
Brevard County plated three more runs in the bottom of the fourth. Cody Hawn and Brock Kjeldgaard drew back-to-back walks to lead off the inning. Joey Paciorek then stepped in and ripped the second triple for the Manatees in as many innings, to clear the bases and give the ‘Tees a 3-0 lead.
Paciorek would come home one batter later as Shea Vucinich singled to left to make it a 4-0 game in favor of the Manatees.
Hall’s only mistake came in the top of the fifth as he walked Mike O’Neill with two outs and then allowed a two-run shot to Starlin Rodriguez as the Cardinals (13-15, 44-51) cut Brevard’s lead to 4-2.
Eric Arnett relieved Hall in the seventh and allowed Palm Beach to make it a 4-3 game on a two-out RBI single from Mike O’Neill. Arnett retired the Cards in order in the eighth and then handed the ball to Greg Holle for the ninth.
Holle allowed back-to-back singles to Cody Stanley and Nicholas Longmire lead-off the ninth, but then got Tyler Rahmatulla to strike out swinging. Then a passed ball by Brent Dean with Ronny Gil at the plate moved the tying run 90 feet from home as the Cardinals had runners on second and third with one out.
Gil would fly out to left as it was too shallow for Stanley to try and tag from third. Holle would then battle O’Neill, who entered the game as the current Florida State League leader in hitting and was already 2-for-3 on the night. Holle got ahead of O’Neill 0-2 and forced him to ground out to third to end the game.
The win was Brevard County’s fifth in its last six games and the ‘Tees improved to 21-18 in one-run games. The Manatees have also entered a three-way tie for second place in the North Division as they are just one game behind first-place Tampa.
Brevard County and Palm Beach continue their four-game set on Friday at 6:35 p.m. Brandon Williamson (2-6, 7.01) will toe the rubber for the ‘Tees as he is coming off of his first win in almost two months.
The Cardinals will send southpaw Kyle Hald to the hill. He will be making his first start in the FSL after being promoted from Class A, where he was 4-5 with a 3.10 ERA.
