JUPITER - The Palm Beach Cardinals broke a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the eighth inning, sending 10 hitters to the plate and scoring six runs to knock off the Fort Myers Miracle, 9-3, on Tuesday evening at Roger Dean Stadium.
Miracle reliever Edgar Ibarra was charged for only two of the six runs as the defense committed two errors in the inning. Ibarra (1-2) did allow three consecutive run-scoring hits by Ronny Gil, Mike O'Neill and Mike Swinson.
Fort Myers took the early lead in the second when Oswaldo Arcia tripled to lead off the inning against Cardinals' starter Seth Maness. Dan Rohlfing plated Arcia with a RBI groundout to go up 1-0.
The Cardinals answered in the bottom half of the second with another set of three consecutive hits. Singles by Jonathan Rodriguez and Geoff Klein set up a two-run double off the bat of Nick Longmire.
Jairo Perez would give the advantage back to the Miracle in the fourth when the native of Acarigua, Venezuela mashed a 1-0 pitch off Maness over the left field wall for a two-run homer.
Palm Beach answered in the sixth with a solo home run from Jonathan Rodriguez to tie the game at 3-3. Miracle starter Marty Popham garnered his longest outing of the season, going 6.1 innings before giving way to Ibarra in the seventh.
Iden Nazario (2-0) pitched the final two innings for the Cardinals and earned the win.
Arcia finished 3-for-4 and Perez was 2-for-3 with the homer, two RBI, and a run scored. Michael Gonzales also collected a multi-hit night going 2-for-4.
The Miracle (9-16) face the Cardinals (12-13) in game two of the series on Wednesday night with first pitch set for 6:35 p.m.
Source: Fort Myers Miracle
