Charlotte Stone Crabs defeat Fort Myers, advance to Florida State League Championship Series

The Game: The Charlotte Stone Crabs advanced to the Florida State League Championship Series by defeating the Fort Myers Miracle 3-2 in game three of the divisional playoffs on Thursday night at Hammond Stadium. The Stone Crabs took a 2-1 win in the best of three Divisional series and will move on to play Tampa in the League Championship.

After sitting through an extended rain delay, the Charlotte offense got things heated up in the second inning. Henry Wrigley singled to center to lead off the inning. Wrigley advanced to second with a stolen base and then to third on a wild pitch. John Matulia drew a walk and then stole his way into scoring position. Mike McCormick followed with a two run single to left that gave the Stone Crabs a 2-0 lead.

The Stone Crabs posted another run in the fifth inning. Drew Anderson drew a walk to lead off the inning. Anderson later scored on a fielding error on a ground ball by Greg Sexton to increase the Stone Crabs lead to 3-0.

Fort Myers scored their first run of the game in the bottom of the fifth. Jair Fernandez double to center to get things started. Fernandez advanced to third on a ground out to short and then scored on an RBI single by Ben Revere.

The Miracle made things interesting in the seventh inning, adding another run and pulling to within a run of the lead. Deibinson Romero doubled to left to lead off the inning. Ben Revere singled to right and scored Romero. Charlotte rallied to keep the Miracle of the scoreboard and held on to with the divisional series.

David Newmann pitch another gem, throwing 6 innings and allowing 1 run on 4 hits with 10 strikeouts for the win. Tommy Rafferty held the lead in check, pitching 2/3 of an inning and allowed a run on 2 hits with 2 strikeouts. Richard De Los Santos recorded the save with 2 1/3 innings pitched allowing only 1 hit while striking out 4 and walking 1. Santos Arias was the losing pitcher for Fort Myers.

What Went Right: David Newmann; 1 run on 4 hits with 10 strikeouts.

What Went Wrong: Stranding Runners; went 1 for 6 with runners in scoring position and stranded 7 runners on base.

A Look Ahead: The Stone Crabs advanced to the Florida State League Championship Series to face the Tampa Yankees. Game one of the best of five series takes place on Friday night at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa. Games one and two will be played in Tampa before returning home to Charlotte Sports Park for games three through five.