Dodgers overcome 6-1 Miracle lead to win 12-9

By SPECIAL TO THE NEWS PRESS

Runs weren't hard to come by Monday night at Vero Beach's Holman Stadium, but unfortunately for the Fort Myers Miracle, they still lost their sixth Florida State League game in a row, 12-9 to the Vero Beach Dodgers.

The Miracle jumped out to a 6-1 lead after an inning and a half. Denard Span led off with a walk and scored when Dodgers pitcher Jason Figueroa threw away Samuel Taylor's bunt. Taylor would score on Justin Arneson's sacrifice fly.

After Andy Laroche homered for the Dodgers in the bottom of the first, the Miracle scored four times in the second. They sent 10 men to the plate, starting with Scott Whitrock's solo homer, his sixth of the season. Ben Pattee added a two-run single and Kyle Geiger walked with the bases loaded to force home a run.

That's when the wheels came off for the Miracle pitchers. The Dodgers then scored in every inning except the sixth and eighth.

The Dodgers took the lead with a four-run third after scoring twice in the second. In the third, Chin Lung Hu and Laroche hit back-to-back homers. Two more two runs scored when Span dropped a fly ball.

Laroche now has 17 homers.

The Miracle took an 8-7 lead in the fourth on a two-run homer by Brock Peterson, his fifth of the season.

Vero added a run in the fourth on Laroche's sacrifice fly and took the lead for good in the fifth on Justin Ruggiano's homer. It added three runs in the eighth.