Brevard Manatees Rally Late, But Fall Short Against Charlotte 3-2
By Brevard County Manatees // May 28, 2015
BREVARD COUNTY • VIERA, FLORIDA – Jacob Faria dominated over seven shutout innings as the Charlotte Stone Crabs (32-14) defeated the Brevard County Manatees (18-27) 3-2 on Wednesday night at Space Coast Stadium.
Faria (8-1, 1.35 ERA) blanked the Manatees over seven strong innings to earn his eighth win of the year. Faria allowed just four hits and one walk. He fanned six in the win.
The Stone Crabs opened the scoring in the fourth inning with a pair of runs. Willy Adames, Jake Bauers and Granden Goetzman singled consecutively to load the bases with nobody out.
After a force out at the plate, Pat Blair singled on a liner to left to score Bauers. Yoel Araujo then lifted a sacrifice fly to left field to plate Goetzman. The Stone Crabs led 2-0 after four innings.
Brandon Woodruff (1-2, 4.20 ERA) left the game after six innings. He surrendered two runs on six hits and one walk. He struck out two.
Tyler Spurlin pitched a scoreless seventh and allowed just a single before he induced a double play.
The Stone Crabs added to the lead in the eighth against Manny Barreda. Adames smacked a one-out double to left-center.
With Bauers batting, Paul Eshleman tried to catch Adames off of second with a snap throw, but the throw was off target and allowed Adames to move to third. With the infield in, Bauers blooped a single over the head of second baseman Chris McFarland and gave Charlotte a 3-0 lead.
Mark Williams pitched a perfect top half of the ninth with two strikeouts to keep the deficit at three.
The Brevard County bats came alive in the bottom of the ninth.
Clint Coulter walked with one out and advanced to third on defensive indifference and a wild pitch. After Victor Roache struck out, Taylor Brennan walked to bring the tying run to the plate.
Garrett Cooper singled home Coulter on a liner to center to put the Manatees on the board. Jose Pena then singled to right field. Brennan scored from second and Cooper advanced to second.
The Manatees trailed 3-2 with the tying run in scoring position and the winning run at first. Steven Halcomb came off of the bench to pinch run for Cooper.
Brad Schreiber induced a ground out off of the bat of Paul Eshleman to end the threat and the game. Schreiber recorded his league-leading 11th save in the process despite the two runs allowed.
Schreiber had surrendered two earned runs all season entering Wednesday.
The Manatees and Stone Crabs will continue the series tomorrow night in Viera.
First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 p.m. RHP Javi Salas (3-3, 2.61 ERA) will start for Brevard County.
RHP German Marquez will toe the rubber for Charlotte.
