Charlotte Stone Crabs rally to defeat Sarasota Reds 5-2

The Game: The Charlotte Stone Crabs rallied from a two run deficit in the late innings to defeat the Sarasota Reds 5-2 Sunday evening at Charlotte Sports Park. Sarasota scored first in the top of the third inning. The Reds led off the inning with back to back singles by Jose Gualdron and Justin Tordi. Justin Reed followed with a line drive down the first base line that was misplayed by Cody Cipriano allowing Gualdron to score. Tordi tried to come home on a wild pitch by Jeremy Hall but was out at the plate thanks to a great play by catcher Christian Lopez recovering the ball and flipping it back to Hall for the out.

Sarasota posted their second run of the night in the sixth inning. Denis Phipps got things going with a double and was later drove home by a single from the bat of Neftali Soto. Sarasota now held a 2-0 lead.

But they lead would quickly diminish as the Stone Crabs battled back to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth. Henry Wrigley led off the inning by drawing a walk and advanced to third on a double by John Matulia. Christian Lopez followed with a ground out to second that allowed Wrigley to score from third. Omar Luna reached on an error by Justin Tordi that scored Matulia and tied the game.

The Stone Crabs rally continues into the seventh as they posted three more runs to the scoreboard and took the lead. The inning started off by Shawn O’Malley getting hit by a pitch. Once on the bases, O’Malley stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Emeel Salem followed with a double to right to score O’Malley and advanced to third as Denis Phipps misplayed the ball in the right field corner. Henry Wrigley delivered a double to score Salem and then later scored on a single by John Matulia to give the Stone Crabs a 5-2 lead and they never looked back.

Jeremy Hall earned the win by pitching 7 innings and surrendering 2 runs (1 earned) on 11 hits while striking out 6. Matt Gorgen came into the game in the eight inning and recorded his eleventh save by pitching 2 shutout innings and allowing 1 hit while striking out 2. Mark Pawelek was the losing pitcher for Sarasota.

What Went Right: Jeremy Hall; 1 earned run in 7 innings while striking out 6 enroute to his league leading ninth win.

What Went Wrong: Omar Luna; 0-3 on the day.

A Look Ahead: The Stone Crabs and Reds face off in game two of the series on Monday night at Charlotte Sports Park. Alex Cobb (4-4) gets the start for Charlotte and he will be pitching against Luis Montano (5-8) for Sarasota.