Miracle drop finale to Tigers

Special to the Cape Coral Daily Breeze

LAKELAND — The Lakeland Tigers salvaged one game from the three-game series with the Fort Myers Miracle, thanks in part to a seven-run fourth inning rally Thursday that propelled the Tigers to a 10-4 victory. The loss ended the Miracle’s first two-game win streak of the season.

Leading 1-0 entering the fourth, the first eight Tigers to the plate hit safely. The first run scored on Ronnie Bourquin’s RBI single to center. Wilkin Ramirez added a two-run triple to center followed by Cameron Maybin’s third home run of the series, a three-run blast to right.

A wild pitch, an error in left by Edward Ovalle, and sacrifice fly by Mark Haske increased Lakeland’s lead to 10-0 through five innings.

The Miracle got on the board in the sixth. Dwayne White pushed his hitting streak to three straight games with an RBI double, followed by a Whit Robbins’ run scoring single, both to right field.

In the eighth, two more Miracle runs came across on a bases-loaded walk to Eli Tintor and an infield single by Ovalle. Javi Sanchez flied out to right with the bases loaded to end the threat.

Besides White, four other hitting streaks were extended Thursday. Steve Tolleson pushed his streak to seven with a lead-off single in the eighth, Juan Portes went to five games with his single in the first, and Ovalle and Erik Lis each hold three-game hit streaks.

The Miracle return to Hammond Stadium Friday to start a six-game homestand. They open with a three-game set with the Dunedin Blue Jays followed by three against the Clearwater Threshers. Friday the first meeting with Dunedin since the Jays won the best-of-three Western Division playoff series 2-1 over the Miracle last September.

Left-hander Alexander Smit (0-0, 8.31) gets the start Friday.