FORT MYERS, Fla. (July 31, 2026) - The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels were defeated by the Palm Beach Cardinals 2-1 in front of a crowd of 2,798 on Friday night at Hammond Stadium.
Fort Myers (52-46, 15-18) walked nine times, including two innings with three walks, but only paid off one of those free passes. They made three outs on the base paths and left eight others on base.
Minnesota Twins No. 26 prospect Matt Barr made his Hammond Stadium debut tonight. Barr registered bookend strikeouts in the top of the first inning, and struck out four Cardinals (52-47, 19-14) through the first two innings.
Facing St. Louis Cardinals No. 6 prospect Brandon Clarke, the Mighty Mussels drew three walks in the first inning, but a 6-4-3 double play thwarted a would-be rally to keep the game scoreless.
In the bottom of the second, Fort Myers benefited from two Palm Beach errors to take the lead. Bryan Acuna drove in Charlie Scholvin on a groundout to first base.
Barr’s night was over after four scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out five over 47 pitches.
Callan Fang (3-3) took over in the fifth. After allowing a leadoff single to JP Cabrera, Fang surrendered a run-scoring single to Jonathan Mejia as Palm Beach tied the game at one.
In the top of the seventh, with Fang still on, Trevor Haskins rocketed a solo home run to give Palm Beach their first lead of the night. With one out, Mike McKenna came on to get the final two outs.
McKenna continued into the eighth, where he needed 14 pitches to retire the side in order.
Nelfy Ynfante (S4) retired six of the seven batters he faced over the final two innings to close out the game.
Fort Myers finished the month of July with a record of 8-16, failing to reach 10 wins in a month for the first time this season. The Mussels ranked last in Single-A in batting average (.218) in July after pacing the level in average in June.
The series continues on Saturday, August 1. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m. with coverage beginning at 5:40 p.m. on the Mighty Mussels Baseball Network.