Record crowd sees Stone Crabs blast Bradenton, 6–1

Posted by Mark Chapman on July 4th, 2010 at 3:30 am

By Grant McAuley

Char­lotte Stone Crabs Broadcaster

The Char­lotte Stone Crabs started the Inde­pen­dence Day week­end fes­tiv­i­ties Sat­ur­day with a 6–1 over the Braden­ton Marauders.

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A record crowd of 7,492 filed into Char­lotte Sports Park and were rewarded for brav­ing the rain with a Stone Crabs win, then with a fire­works show fol­low­ing the game.

The vic­tory gave Char­lotte its first back-to-back wins since June 20. Since June 22, the team is 4–8.

Stephen Vogt gave the Stone Crabs an early lead, rip­ping a first-inning dou­ble to right cen­ter that scored both Isa­ias Velasquez and Tim Beck­ham. Though Vogt was gunned down try­ing to stretch it to a triple, Char­lotte took the early 2–0 lead.

Solid start­ing pitch­ing played a part in the Stone Crabs’ suc­cess for the sec­ond day in a row.

Nick Bar­nese (6−4) tossed six innings of one-run ball. He allowed just five hits and walked three while strik­ing out four and earned his sec­ond win of the sea­son against the Marauders.

The offense sup­plied two-run dou­bles from Vogt in the first and Kyeong Kang in the fourth to not only give Bar­nese the lead, but also pro­vide some breath­ing room in the mid­dle frames.

Mike Sheri­dan went 2-for-4 with an RBI, while Reid Fronk col­lected a pair of hits in four trips and scored two runs as well.

Fronk’s on-base per­cent­age sits at .410 on the sea­son. That is the best mark in the entire Tampa Bay Rays sys­tem, includ­ing the par­ent club.

The Stone Crabs bat­tered Braden­ton starter Nathan Adcock (7−3) for the sec­ond time this sea­son. Adcock sur­ren­dered six runs — all earned — on eight hits over 5 1/3 innings of work.

Justin Gar­cia made his sec­ond appear­ance since rejoin­ing Char­lotte, hurl­ing three per­fect innings with a pair of strike­outs for his first save.

Char­lotte catcher Jake Jef­feries broke out of an 0-for-30 slump in the sec­ond half with a fourth-inning dou­ble and came in on Kang’s two-base hit. Jef­feries later knocked in a run with a sac­ri­fice fly and fin­ished 1-for-3.

The Stone Crabs will open up a three-game series against the St. Lucie Mets at Dig­i­tal Domain Park on Sun­day. Right-hander Joe Cruz (5−5) will take the mound in the opener against lefty Robert Car­son (6−4). First pitch is set for 6 p.m.

Stone Crabs-Bradenton Box Score 070310

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