After Friday’s wild extra inning game, Ethan Stewart and Lakeland’s Edgar De La Rosa locked up in a pitchers’ duel Saturday night. The teams battled into extra innings again when the Threshers scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the score at two.

The game started with Stewart yielding a walk to the lead off hitter. He continued with a strike out. After a single, he got the clean up hitter to bounce into an inning 4-6-3 double play.

Stewart allowed back-to-back one out singles in the second. He ended the threat with his second strike out and a fly ball to Aaron Altherr in center. After two innings, Stewart had thrown 37 pitches (22 for strikes), and seemed destined for an early night.

However, Stewart responded with 1-2-3 innings in the third, fourth, and fifth innings. He posted three strike outs in that stretch, but only needed 31 pitches to record those 9 outs. He retired the first two batters in the sixth inning, the second on his sixth strike out, before giving up a home run that sailed through the 19 MPH wind into the Threshers’ bull pen.

Stewart surrendered a first pitch, lead off double to start the seventh inning. The runner stole third and scored on a Logan Moore throwing error. Stewart ended his evening with 2 ground outs and his seventh strike out. On the night, Stewart threw 103 pitches, 63 for strikes. His line was –

7 IP; 5 H; 2 R; 1 ER; 1 BB; 7 K

Stewart left trailing 2-0. He seemed to be leaving his pitches up early in the game. But from the third inning on, he located his pitches well. It looks as though likes to throw high heat when he has two strikes on the batter. All five of his swinging strike outs came on high heat.

The Threshers’ batters were stymied for eight innings by De La Rosa. Although his strike/ball ratio wasn’t very impressive (31/27 thru 5), he only needed 89 pitches to one hit the aggressive (impatient?) Threshers’ hitters. He gave way to a closer in the ninth inning.

The Threshers responded with a one out single by Altherr. With two out, Art Charles dribbled a ball up the middle that bounced off the second base bag and away from the fielders, scoring Altherr who had advanced earlier on a wild pitch and a ground out. Consecutive singles by Willie Carmona and Moore drove in pinch runner KC Serna with the tying run. Serna remained in the game at third and Harold Martinez moved over to play first.

Dan Child provided 3 shut out innings before Chris Burgess came in to start the eleventh. He took the loss when the Flying Tigers put together 4 singles to take a 4-2 lead.

Update: Anthony Phillips was placed on the 7-day DL. Malquin Canelo was called up to replace him on the roster and started at shortstop. He provided some solid defense. Friday night Justin Parr played third and Martinez played short when Phillips was removed due to injury. Originally, Carmona had taken the field to play third. But, Carmona had accidentally been left off the game roster. When he took the field, Lakeland called attention to the mistake and Carmona was not allowed to participate. Serna began the game unavailable to play. So, Parr was pressed into service.