Brevard County Gobbles Up Tampa Yankees
By Brevard County Manatees // August 11, 2012
Miller Makes Debut Tonight
BREVARD COUNTY • VIERA, FLORIDA – The Brevard County Manatees jumped out to a 6-0 lead and survived a rally from the Tampa Yankees to take the first game of a three-game set, 8-6 on Friday night at Space Coast Stadium.
The ‘Tees (26-22 second half, 55-61 overall) jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning and chased Tampa’s starting pitcher Jose A. Ramirez, without even recording a hit. Nick Shaw drew a one-out walk and then Jason Rogers reached on an error by second baseman Jose Toussen, as Shaw reached third. Rogers then stole second and then Mike Walker walked to load the bases.
Shea Vucinich plated the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly that scored Shaw and moved Rogers and Walker up 90 feet each. The bases would be loaded for Brevard once again after Cody Hawn drew a walk. Joey Paciorek then reached on an error by third baseman Zach Wilson that allowed two runs to score and gave Brevard a 3-0 lead. Ramirez was then lifted from the game and the inning finally ended with John Dishon flying out against the new pitcher Aaron Dott.
Brevard scored two more in the second thanks to a two-out, two-run homer by Jason Rogers, his fifth of the season. The ‘Tees would score once again in the bottom of the fourth on a RBI ground out from Shaw.
The six-run lead was plenty for Manatees starting pitcher Nick Bucci (1-0, 0.00) to work with as he threw five scoreless frames, while striking out six.
Tampa (29-19, 59-56) did not go down without a fight however as they plated four unearned runs against southpaw Thomas Keeling in the seventh inning. Keeling walked one, hit two batters and gave up a three-run double to Gary Sanchez. The inning would have ended with Tyler Austin at the plate, but an error by Walker extended the inning and led to the unearned runs.
The ‘Tees would get one run back in the bottom of the seventh on a RBI single from Hawn to take a 7-4 lead, but the Yanks made it a one-run game in the eighth thanks to RBI singles from Slade Heathcott and Kyle Roller off of Greg Holle.
Brevard County plated an insurance run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly from Walker and Alan Williams came on in the ninth and pitched around a lead-off single for the save as the ‘Tees moved to within three games of first place Tampa.
Matt Miller will make his Brevard County debut as the ‘Tees take on Tampa on Saturday night at 6:35 p.m. Miller was 10-7 with a 3.68 ERA in 22 starts with Class-A Wisconsin this season. The Yankees will counter with Shane Greene (4-3, 4.24).
