Bradenton Marauders | Jupiter Hammerheads run away from M's in series opener

BRADENTON -- Four batters into Tuesday's series opener against the Jupiter Hammerheads, Frank Duncan and the Bradenton Marauders were inches away from getting out of the top of the first unscathed.

Instead, pitching coach Scott Ellerton was at the mound for a chat with his starter, and Bradenton was already in a multi-run hole.

Yefri Perez, the leadoff hitter, blooped a single into shallow left field, just over the outstretched glove of leaping shortstop Chris Diaz. The next batter, Justin Bohn, lashed a double past third base when Wyatt Mathisen's dive came up empty.

Jupiter already had a lead.

Then Austin Dean lobbed a single into center than slipped off Austin Meadows' glove on a diving attempt before a shot back up the middle by Avery Romero whizzed by Duncan's glove as he whirled to try batting it down.

"I think that affected him a little bit," manager Michael Ryan said, "and then he tried to be too fine."

The close misses and nearly spectacular plays added up for the Marauders, who are playing with a razor-thin margin of error as they try to chase down the first-place Palm Beach Cardinals in the Florida State League South's second-half standings. The Pirates' Advanced Single-A affiliate has been gutted of a third of its starting lineup in recent weeks and on Tuesday, its bats couldn't prop up pedestrian pitching before the Hammerheads ran away for a 9-3 win in front of 1,069 in Bradenton.

During the past week, the Marauders' offense, and with it perhaps their postseason hopes, took a series of hits. On July 27, shortstop JaCoby Jones was promoted to Double-A Altoona before being dealt to the Tigers. Four days later, second baseman Erich Weiss was called to Altoona. And a week before all that, typical No. 3 hitter Barrett Barnes was the first Bradenton (55-52, 23-14) star to join the Curve.

"I'm happy for those guys going to Double-A," Ryan said. "Now it's next man up."

The Marauders are still menacing in the middle of the order with FSL All-Stars Reese McGuire, Austin Meadows and Jin-De Jhang, plus fast-rising outfield prospect Harold Ramirez. The cracks now show more at the bottom of the order than they did two weeks ago.

The bottom of the third inning brought the two newest starters to the plate and on this night, the first game at McKechnie Field since Bradenton lost the final piece of its star-studded middle infield, they helped trigger the Marauders' most promising rally, only to be let down by the more established top of the order.

An infield single by second baseman Michael Fransoso and walk by Diaz loaded the bases for the Bradenton with no outs and the lineup turning over. The Marauders had their best chance to cut into the Marlins affiliate's 3-0 lead.

Leadoff hitter Justin Maffei lasted five pitches before striking out swinging. All four runners stayed planted on their bases. Meadows was next, and he grounded to the shortstop for a fielder's choice. Mathisen scored from third and Fransoso tried for home, too, only to be gunned out by first baseman Felix Munoz.

Bradenton managed only three hits against starting pitcher Ben Holmes (1-0) in his six innings. All three came from the Marauders' last three hitters.

"We have guys that are capable 1-9 to do that, even guys that aren't playing that day," Ryan said.

"Of course, there are talented hitters who left, but we also have talented hitters that are going to step in."

Duncan (7-7) was never able to settle down after his rocky first inning -- and his luck never found him, either. A second-inning error by Fransoso led to an unearned run. In the fourth, Jupiter (50-59, 15-24) scored again despite only managing a pair of singles. Duncan finally was chased in the seventh after surrendering hits to three of the first four batters. Andy Otamendi entered as a replacement and served up a grand slam to the third batter he faced, leaving Duncan with six earned runs and knocking Bradenton out of reach.

"I was a little out of whack at the beginning. I wasn't hitting my spots," Duncan said. "It comes down to executing pitches better and maybe those balls that are bleeders that find holes in the outfield or in the infield, if I make my pitch better they're right at somebody."

The Marauders did score a pair of runs in the ninth against Drew Steckenrider, who got his first save anyway for three innings of relief, but by then the production was essentially meaningless, and Bradenton slipped two games behind Palm Beach, which beat the Stone Crabs 5-4 in 10 innings.

This story was originally published August 5, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Bradenton Marauders | Jupiter Hammerheads run away from M's in series opener."