Friday, April 16, 2010

Jupiter Hammerheads 2, Charlotte Stone Crabs 1 (10 innings)

[Via email from Jonathan Gantt, the Charlotte Stone Crabs Marketing Manager.]

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- Charlotte Stone Crabs manager Jim Morrison won the Closest-to-the-Pin contest after the game, but the Stone Crabs on the field dropped another close matchup in a 2-1 extra innings loss to the Jupiter Hammerheads on Friday night at Charlotte Sports Park.

The post-game golf contest was part of the Golfer's Appreciation Night festivities, and Morrison landed a nine-iron five feet from the pin to best the other coaches and club pros from local country clubs.

Unfortunately, the Charlotte batters were unable to swing the sticks as successfully as their manager. The offense went 4-for-34 on the night with the lone run scored on a solo home run.

The lack of run support wasted another solid outing from the Stone Crabs pitching staff who gave up just five hits in 10 innings. The Charlotte bullpen finally snapped their consecutive inning scoreless streak at 18 innings when Tommy Rafferty (0-1) gave up the winning run in the top of the tenth inning.

Henry Wrigley served as the only offensive highlight for the Stone Crabs (4-3). He gave a jolt to the Charlotte Sports Park crowd with a towering blast to left field to finally break through the scoreless lull that lasted the first seven innings. The longball came on a 2-2 pitch after Wrigley had fouled off three straight offerings from Jupiter starter Robert Bono.

Charlotte starter Joe Cruz threw a stellar outing but did not qualify for the win. He gave up just one run on two hits in six innings of work with six punchouts.

Wrigley and Isaias Valesquez both extended their hit streaks to seven games for the Stone Crabs. Valesquez knocked a double in the sixth inning to keep his streak alive.

The teams continue the series tomorrow at Charlotte Sports Park with first pitch at 7:05 p.m. Lefty Frank De Los Santos will toe the rubber for the Stone Crabs against righty Graham Johnson (0-0, 3.60) for the Hammerheads.

Tomorrow features a pre-game YMCA Healthy Kids Day 5k, free Kids Carnival and an appearance by Rally the "King of Bling."

3 comments:

  1. when Sweeney strikes out are most of them looking or swinging and when he gets out by making contact are those mostly fly balls or ground balls?

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  2. Don't have time to look up how he strikes out, but here are his GB/LD/FB numbers through yesterday's games. (Sorry, busy with 5 games going on...)

    GB% - 46.7%
    LD% - 20.0%
    FB% - 33.3%

    His slash lines on each (BA, OBP, SLG):

    GB - .143/.143/.286
    LD - 1.000/1.000/1.667
    FB - .600/.600/2.400

    When he keeps it off the ground, he's pretty good (small sample size and all). I can look at last year for more data if you want.

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  3. no thats okay, thats all I needed, thank you

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