Lis homers twice to lead Miracle to victory

By Special to the Naples Daily News

DAYTONA BEACH — A pair of two-run blasts by Erik Lis in his perfect 5-for-5 night at the plate paced the Fort Myers Miracle to an 8-5 win over the Daytona Cubs on Monday night. Lis added three singles in his evening including a run-scoring hit in the ninth to help provide insurance in the win.

A back-and-forth ballgame at Jackie Robinson Ballpark started with Lis’ first homer of the night after Brian Dinkelman led off with a free pass to first. Daytona would quickly respond in their second frame as an RBI triple from Matt Matulia and groundout from Billy Mottram would tie the contest at 2-2.

A one-out double from Danny Valencia would eventually push the Miracle to a 3-2 lead. After moving to third on a wild pitch from starter Adalberto Mendez, Edward Ovalle would bring in Valencia with his sacrifice fly to the base of the wall in right. Again, the Cubs would respond with a solo shot from Ryan Harvey a half-inning later knotting the game back at 3-3.

A Steve Tolleson two-out single kept the inning alive for Lis in the seventh. A fastball from Scott Taylor ended up a no-doubter for Lis and a new Miracle lead at 5-3. Pesky Daytona would again fight back with a two-out single from Jonathan Mota in their seventh cutting the lead back to one at 5-4.

Three unearned ninth-inning runs for the Miracle started off by Toby Gardenhire reaching on a throwing error from Mota at short. With runners at the corners and one down, Lis would register his fifth hit of night, scoring Gardenhire, to send the Miracle back to a two-run cushion.

Another two-out single from Juan Portes and a wild pitch from Taylor gave the Miracle the four-run lead. The Cubs made things interesting in the ninth as a two-out single from Matulia brought the home team to within three and sent the tying run to the plate. Miracle closer Eddie Morlan would fan Mottram on strikes to end the game.

The Miracle had a hit in every inning Monday night ended the evening with a total of 13. Daytona stranded double-digit runners on base for the second consecutive night with 10.

Game three of the four-game set happens on Tuesday night as LHP Errol Simonitsch (2-0, 3.86) battles the Cubs RHP Joel Santo (8-5, 4.96) at 7:05 p.m.