Edian Espinal’s walk-off double lifted the Lakeland Flying Tigers (44-47, 13-13) to an incredible 11-10 seven-run comeback win over the Jupiter Hammerheads (45-47, 8-18) on Wednesday night at Joker Marchant Stadium.
Jupiter began the scoring in the second inning off starter Paul Wilson. Edgardo De Leon walked, moved to second on a wild pitch, advanced to third on a Jeremy Almonte walk and scored on a wild pitch, putting the Hammerheads ahead 1-0.
Lakeland tied the game with one run in the bottom of the second off starter Manuel Genao. Espinal drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a single from Carson Rucker, stole third and scored on a balk, knotting the game at 1-1.
Jupiter took the lead with three runs in the third, with the first being charged to Wilson and the next two to reliever Pedro Garcia. Max Williams led off with an infield single, moved to second on a walk from Luis Cova, advanced to third on a Luis Arana fielder’s choice and scored on a ground-rule double from Jake McCutcheon. Arana scored on a passed ball and McCutcheon scored on a throwing error, pushing the lead to 4-1.
Lakeland responded with two runs in the third off Genao. Jack Goodman tallied a leadoff single and scored on an RBI double from Beau Ankeney. Thayron Liranzo plated Ankeney on a double to cut the deficit to 4-3.
The Hammerheads broke the game open with a six-run fifth, with five runs charged to reliever Jose Guzman and the other to reliever Jan Caraballo. Williams singled for his third hit of the night, moved to second on a walk from Cova and scored on a single from McCutcheon. Cova scored on an RBI single from De Leon followed by a two-run double from Jeremy Almonte, putting the visitors lead at 8-3. After an Echedry Vargas walk, Almonte scored on a wild pitch and Cova plated Vargas with his fourth walk of the night, extending the lead to 10-3.
Lakeland cut into the deficit with four runs in the bottom of the fifth off reliever Samuel Carpio. Liranzo drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a Nick Dumesnil hit by pitch and moved to third on an Espinal walk. Anibal Salas singled home Liranzo and Dumesnil to cut the deficit to 10-5. After a Goodman single, Jordan Yost drove in Espinal and Salas on a two-run knock, slicing the gap to 10-7.
The Flying Tigers further cut into the deficit with one run in the seventh off reliever Juan De La Cruz. Salas reached on an infield single, moved to second on a Yost single and scored on an Ankeney RBI single, his fourth consecutive multi-hit game to dip into the deficit, 10-8.
Lakeland added one run in the eighth off reliever Braulio Salas. Espinal blasted a solo shot to right field to cut the deficit to 10-9.
The Flying Tigers rallied to win the game off Salas in ninth. Beau Ankeney led off with a triple and knotted the game at 10-10 on a wild pitch. Dumesnil walked and Espinal drove him in on a walk-off RBI double, giving Lakeland an 11-10 win.
Yendy Gomez (5-2) earned the win, going 1.0 perfect inning while striking out one. Salas (6-4) took the loss, allowing three runs on four hits over 1.2 innings while punching out four and walking three.
The Flying Tigers look for a 3-0 series lead on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. as Lakeland RHP Cale Wetwiska (1-0, 4.41) faces off against Jupiter RHP Jake Clemente (3-2, 4.12).
