Palm Bay offense ramps up as they hit 20 runs
If you thought Aviators tally of 10 runs at Cocoa Beach was good, they came home against Naples Tropics (the Hawaii affiliate) and doubled their tally. Chris Jenkins led off the game for Palm bay with a solo homer but there was no more offence until the fifth innings when Naples replied with a solo shot of their own. They didn’t look smug for long as Jenkins added his second homer of the game, a 2-run shot, in the bottom of the fifth to restore the Aviators lead.
The crowd of 1,000 were then open mouthed as the Aviators offence hit the afterburners. 10 batters came to the plate for Palm Bay in the sixth and Brian Best forgot his previous day’s 0’fer with a 3-run homer as Aviators pushed the score out to 10-2. They weren’t finished though as Fernando Casimiro added a 2-run homer at the start of the seventh and Best topped off another big seven-run innings with the Aviators THIRD Grand Slam of the week.
It would probably be fair to say that the Tropics were shell-shocked and the Aviators added runs #18 & #19 in the eighth and Daniel Mares came home with the 20th run on a throwing error which sailed past the third baseman. Jenkins tied the Palm Bay regular season record with four runs scored and Best went 3-5 with a walk, scoring twice on his two homers and collecting 7 RBI. Jose Lopez put on a show on the mound, pitching a complete game giving up seven hits, three walks, just two runs while dropping the K on 10 batters.
