Miracle defeat Jupiter to extend streak

By special to the Fort Myers News Press

The numbers and streaks continue to pile up for the Fort Myers Miracle as they won for the eighth consecutive time Wednesday night at Jupiter’s Roger Dean Stadium, 2-1 over the Jupiter Hammerheads and extended their lead in the Florida State League Western Division to 1.5 games over the Clearwater Threshers.

In a series that has been dominated by pitching, the Miracle carried a 19-inning scoreless streak into Wednesday’s game.

Miracle starter Kyle Aselton did all he could to extend the streak, going six scoreless innings, allowing four hits while striking out seven.

Aselton hasn’t allowed an earned run in his last three games.

The only trouble he got into was in the fourth when he gave up back-to-back singles to Brad Davis and Juan Figueroa with two outs. He retired Steve Gendron on a groundout to end the inning.

The Miracle, who improved to 31-20 in the second half and a season-high 17 games over .500 on the season, got all the offense they needed in the seventh. Fort Myers hadn’t gotten a runner to second off Hammerheads starter Matthew Goyen until Trevor Plouffe led off the inning with a single and stole second. One out later Brock Peterson hit a two-run homer to left field, his 19th of the season, to give the Miracle a 2-0 lead.

The homer puts Peterson one shy of tying the Fort Myers single-season mark of 20 shared by Tommy Peterman (1998) and Matthew LeCroy (1999).

It was the seventh consecutive game the Miracle have homered.

Fort Myers’ scoreless streak came to an end at 26 innings in the eighth. Miracle reliever Tim Lahey gave up a leadoff double to Dominick Ambrosini. Carlos Piste’s groundout moved him to third and Ambrosini scored on a sacrifice fly by Dante Brinkley to make it 2-1.

It was the second-longest scoreless streak by the Miracle. They had a 39-inning scoreless streak from May 28 to June 1.

During the winning streak the Miracle have outscored their opponents 32-13.

Fort Myers also has a seven-game road winning streak.