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Florida Fire Frogs Communications
Toussaint earns first win since April in game-three victory
(Kissimmee, FL.) - The Florida Fire Frogs came up short in their bid for a series victory on Sunday night at Osceola County Stadium, falling to the Fort Myers Miracle, 8-3. Fort Myers (2-2, 35-37) plated two runs in the opening frame against Ricardo Sanchez (3-8). Jaylin Davis drove in his third run in as many days with a sacrifice fly to right, plating Brandon Lopez to put Florida (2-2, 27-43) in a one-run deficit. After a walk to Tanner English put runners at first and second, Mitchell Kranson singled to center to score Jermain Palacios to put the Fire Frogs in a two-run hole. Sanchez had a chance to set down the side in order in the second, but surrendered a two-out home run to Max Murphy to put Florida behind by three. The Fire Frogs tied the game at three apiece with an RBI double from Tanner Murphy (1x3, R, 2B, RBI, BB) and a two-run two-bagger to left off the bat of Alejandro Salazar (1x3, 2B, 2 RBI). The Miracle jumped back out in front with two more runs in the third, as Kranson drove in his second run of the game with a two-out double to the gap in right-center. Zander Wiel drove Kranson home with a single past a diving Salazar at third. The visitors brought home solo runs in the fourth and fifth innings to break the game open to 7-3. Oriel Caicedo (2.0ip, 3h, 1r, 1so) and Adam McCreery (2.0 ip, 2h, 1r, 1bb, 2so) made their team debuts on Sunday, as the lefties combined to allow two runs on five hits, a walk and three strikeouts in four frames. The Miracle tacked on an extra run in the eighth with an RBI single to right by Murphy for his fourth hit of the game, and 11th in the series. Florida will take part in a league-wide off day on Monday, before taking the road for a seven-game road trip that starts with a three-game set against the Jupiter Hammerheads at Roger Dean Stadium starting Tuesday night. LHP Drew Harrington (4-7, 4.55) takes the mound for the Fire Frogs, while it has yet to be determined who will oppose the lefty for the Hammerheads. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. The Fire Frogs return to Osceola County Stadium on Tuesday, July 4 for game one of a three-game set against the Hammerheads. Fans are encouraged to stay after the game to witness an Independence Day Spectacular, featuring the largest fireworks display of the season. The series opener is also "Fire Rum Tuesday" at the ballpark, where fans can enjoy $3 Fire Rum mixed drinks and $2 tostones. Every Monday through Wednesday game is "Service Industry Night" in Kissimmee, where members of the service industry can purchase tickets at a discounted rate. Written By: Joe Zollo A cloudy and humid night in Osceola County as the Florida Fire Frogs, Class A-Advanced affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, hosted the St. Lucie Mets, Class A-Advanced affiliate of the New York Mets, in game three of four in the series Monday evening. St. Lucie took the first two games of the series in a doubleheader played on Sunday.
The starting pitching matchup in this game was Justin Dunn of St. Lucie opposing Touki Toussaint of Florida. Heading into the game, Toussaint had a record of 1-6 with an ugly ERA of 6.84 while Dunn came in with a .500 record and a 5.36 ERA. Both pitchers had their fair share of strikeouts, but it was more so the defenses behind them that did the job. In the field for St. Lucie, right fielder Arnaldo Berrios channeled his inner Jackie Bradley Jr. and made an incredible over the shoulder catch on the warning track to end the 3rd inning. He had much work Monday evening, catching four fly balls, three of them to end innings. For the rest of the game, only one other out came from the outfield as the infield of St. Lucie had themselves a fantastic night. Third baseman Jhoan Urena, who had the game’s lone RBI, had himself a night with five assists including a turned 5-4-3 double play. One pitcher that came to play was Kevin Canelon of the Mets. Canelon pitched himself three straight 1-2-3 innings from the 6th through the 8th inning. He recorded only two strikeouts in that time and only allowed two balls to be hit into the outfield while the rest were groundouts with one double play. For the Fire Frogs, starter Touki Toussaint allowed the game’s only run in the first inning while also walking five batters. Relief pitchers Sean McLaughlin and Corbin Clouse pitched well the final three innings of the game, but the offense of the Fire Frogs never got started. The team had a total of eight hits, but none of them could come across the plate. A big story in this game was the suspect umpiring by both the home plate and field umpire. Many questionable strikes out calls along with a botched pickoff call in the 9th inning led to Fire Frogs manager Paul Runge coming out of the dugout on multiple occasions to argue the calls. In the 9th, Fire Frog Braxton Davidson was ejected from the game for throwing his helmet and arguing the pick off call where he was called out. That call put up the 2nd out in the 9th, and Jonathan Morales flew out to deep right to end the game. The call was game-changing because Austin Riley was on third base and if Davidson was called safe, Riley would have had the chance to tag up and score to tie the game. The final score in this one was 1-0 in favor of the St. Lucie Mets as they go up 3-0 in the series with game four being played June 6th with a first pitch time of 7:05. The starting pitching matchup in that game will be Nabil Crismatt of St. Lucie opposing Enderson Franco of Florida. Written by Joe Zollo On a gorgeous night in Osceola County Stadium, the Florida Fire Frogs, class A-Advanced affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, welcomed in the Lakeland Flying Tigers, class A-Advanced affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. The Tigers walked in ready to play but by the end of the first inning, the game was already a lost cause. If you love watching a fireworks show then the post-game fireworks were something to behold. For the people who do not like the loud noises of the fireworks, you could still see a nine inning fireworks show put on by the Fire Frogs offense.
The pitching matchup in this game held A.J Ladwig of Lakeland opposing Tyler Pike of the Fire Frogs. One had a fantastic outing while the other struggled to get out of the first inning. Lakeland pitcher, A.J Ladwig, started the game but did not even pitch a full inning as he allowed 8 earned runs in the first inning. Yes. 8 earned runs. In the first inning. Spenser Watkins came on in relief for him with 2 outs left in the first and he allowed another two runs to come across in the inning. Before the first pitch of the second inning was thrown, the score was already 10-0 Fire Frogs. You may be thinking that Lakeland scored a couple runs to try and keep it competitive and you are incorrect. The Tigers could get nothing going at the plate as they never had more than five batters at the plate in an inning. They only struck out nine times and contact was being made on pitches, just not any good contact. Only seven hits were made in the game for the Flying Tigers and only one of them was for extra bases. The best hitting performance was put on the by the number nine hitter David Gonzalez. Gonzalez went 2-3 at the plate with two singles and a line out to right field. Other than that, every Flying Tiger had a less than pleasing night at the plate but the same did not fair for the Fire Frogs. After scoring 10 runs in the first inning and almost batting through the line up twice, Florida scored eight runs the rest of the game while only missing out on scoring opportunities in two innings. The Fire Frogs scored in 75% of the innings that they were at the plate and it was in tremendous fashion. The team combined for 24 hits with three of them being home runs, two of which were hit back-to-back by Austin Riley and Braxton Davidson in the 5th inning. Another crazy stat for the Fire Frogs offense was that every starter today had at least one hit throughout the game. The standout performance for Fire Frogs at the plate was 2B Alay Lago who went 5-6 at the plate. Every single hit he had was a single including three straight singles in the first, second, and third inning. In the end, the Lakeland Flying Tigers fell to the Florida Fire Frogs by a traumatic score of 18-0. Tyler Pike, Corbin Clouse, and Josh Graham pitched a combined no hitter for Florida while Tyler Pike received the win, his first of the season, and A.J Ladwig was handed the loss. This was game one of a three game series between the teams as game two will be played April 29th with Spencer Turnbull of Lakeland opposing Drew Harrington of Florida. First pitch set for 7:05 as Lakeland looks come back from the embarrassing loss in this game.
Written By: Joe Zollo
(Kissimmee, FL) In the final game of this three-game series between the Dunedin Blue Jays and the Florida Fire Frogs, Dunedin’s bats showed up in a meaningful fashion to help them hit all over the field Wednesday. The pitching matchup Wednesday evening featured RHP Jordan Romano of Dunedin opposing LHP Tyler Pike of Florida.
Both pitchers saw short time, but Romano made the most of his time on the mound. He pitched a short four innings but only allowed one run on three hits while striking out three. The relievers for Dunedin showed up in style as well as they combined to allow only five hits in the final five innings of play. Ryan Cook stood out amongst the relievers as he went three innings allowing only one hit while striking out four. At the plate, for Dunedin, it was a laser show. Overall, the team had 13 hits in the game, and all but one of them were singles. No big hits from the Blue Jays, they just made good contact with the pitches they saw and capitalized with great base running. One other thing that helped them out was the nine walks they received in the game. The poor pitching and good plate vision and discipline from the Jays made the game ultimately unreachable for Florida. On the Fire Frogs side of things, starting pitcher, Tyler Pike struggled in his 4.2 innings pitched. He allowed five runs on just seven hits while walking four and striking out only five. The relievers for Florida did not help the team much either as they combined to allow six more runs in the second half of the game. 1B Wigberto Nevarez had to come in to pitch in the 9th inning; he allowed three runs in his short 0.1 innings pitched. At the plate, for Florida, they did not show up until it didn’t matter anymore. Four of their ten hits in the game came in the ninth inning when they were down by double-digit runs, and the game was out of reach. The bottom three in the order singled and Austin Riley capped it off with a three-run home run to make the Fire Frogs loss a tiny bit more respectable. Aside from his home run, Riley continues to struggle at the plate but continues to impress in the field at his third base position. If he can figure how to improve on his .231 average this season, he is looking at getting called up into Double-A and possibly even Triple-A. Another Fire Frog that has great fielding skills but must improve his performance at the plate is the speedster Ray-Patrick Didder. Didder has an impressive arm in the outfield with speed and reaction time to catch almost everything that comes his way. The only problem is that his batting average is .158. His first look seems to be to walk any chance he gets so he can get on base and steal with his blazing, speed but he needs to be more aggressive if he looks to be called up. Dunedin takes the final game of the series in an 11-5 blowout over Florida. Dunedin continues their road trip as they travel to Jupiter to challenge the Hammerheads in a four-game series while Florida takes their first road trip of the year to take on the St. Lucie Mets. First game in the series for Florida is April 13, and lefty Drew Harrington gets the ball for the Fire Frogs. So far this season, Harrington is 1-0 in his lone start with an ERA of 0, and he looks to continue that dominance against the Mets. Written by Joe Zollo (Kissimmee, FL)Another night game for the Fire Frogs as they faced off against the Dunedin Blue Jays in game two of their three game, early week series. This game featured shaky defense with subpar pitching, along with luck at the plate for both teams. The starting pitchers for the game featured Ryan Borucki for Dunedin opposing Luiz Gohara for Florida.
Gohara only through a short four innings but allowed five hits and two runs in his short stint on the night. This outing was much less impressive than his first start where he did not allow a single run on the Fire Frogs inaugural night. Gohara was relieved by lefty A.J Minter, who was called up this morning from Danville while relief pitcher, Carlos Salazar, was sent down to Danville in the move. Minter was impressive in his first Class A-Advanced appearance with the Fire Frogs, going one short inning and striking out two while allowing no hits on 17 pitches, 11 of which were strikes. The fourth reliever, Jacob Webb, ended up receiving the win in tonight’s game as he came in pitched the 8th and 9th inning while allowing only one hit and no runs. Dunedin’s starter, Ryan Borucki, had a rough outing tonight. He threw 91 pitches while allowing eight hits and four earned runs through five innings pitched; not impressive for a starting pitcher. He, however, was not awarded the loss in this game as third reliever, Tom Robson, allowed the eventual winning run in the bottom 8th inning to put the Fire Frogs on top 5-4 heading into the 9th. At the plate for the Fire Frogs, Alay Lago had himself a game. He had very minimal work in the field but he batted .500 while hitting two singles and batting in two runs, one of which was the eventual game winner. Another standout for the Frogs was CF Ronald Acuna. He went 1.000 at the plate by hitting two singles while also having two stolen bases. Ray-Patrick Didder and Acuna have been trading places between RF and CF but it seems manager Paul Runge should keep Acuna in right. Didder has been showing a much more capable arm in center field and his fielding has been much better than Acuna’s so far this season. Even with his impressive fielding ability, Didder still needs to work on his plate presence as he went hitless again tonight, despite getting on base with a walk. Defensively the game was sloppy for both teams as they combined for six errors, each team recording three. Most came from poor throws but a couple were on easy pop flies that fielders could not catch. The wind was a factor in that tonight as it was blowing hard coming in from right-center field. In the end, the Fire Frogs took game two of this three game series 5-4 to win the series 2-0 with one game left to go. The final game of the series will happen in the same place, at the same time with LHP Tyler Pike for Florida opposing RHP Jordan Romano for Dunedin. Each was awarded a no decision in their first outings so each will be looking for their first win of the season. Written by Joe Zollo Kissimmee, FL - In game two of the Florida Fire Frogs four game inaugural series with the Daytona Tortugas, their offense came out hot for a crowd of 1,900 at Osceola County Stadium. The pitching matchup featured RHP Jose Lopez for the Tortugas and LHP Tyler Pike for the Fire Frogs.
For the Frogs, they struggled overall in the field recording four errors to Daytona’s one error but that was no issue for them. Unlike in the opener, their production at the plate was exceptional, recording nine hits throughout the game including two home runs hit by C Alex Jackson and 3B Austin Riley. The home run was Riley’s only hit today but he recorded multiple putouts and assists in the field today, grabbing ball after ball and recording some web gems throughout the game. Riley recorded 20 home runs last year in the A- affiliate Rome Braves season while also recording 80 RBI’s. Along with Riley, pitcher Chase Johnson-Mullins, who came in for relief of Josh Graham, pitched extremely efficiently. In his 1.1 IP, the 6’9 300 pound monster did not allow a single hit and struck out one batter along the way. Overall, the lively offense of the Fire Frogs and the poor offense of the Tortugas lead them to their first victory. Daytona took an early 2-0 lead through two and a half innings but their pitching crumbled after that. Starting pitcher Jose Lopez allowed eight hits and five runs through his 5.1 innings pitched. A positive from his stat line was that only one of those five runs were earned runs and he also struck out seven batters. Looking at the offense of Daytona, the team hit three doubles in the first three innings but after that went as cold as a New England winter. Only two singles were hit the rest of the game and that ultimately resulted in their downfall this game. Striking out an overall 10 times and not being able to capitalize with men on base due to errors or walks made for a rough second half of the game. The final score was 5-4 with the Fire Frogs receiving their first win of their inaugural season. The series is now split 1-1 with Daytona and game three will be played April 8th with an early afternoon first pitch of 4:05. It will be another lefty vs. righty matchup as LHP Drew Harrington for Florida will oppose RHP Vladimir Gutierrez for Daytona. |
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