JUPITER ... Lakeland continues it swing thru the South Division with a four-game visit to Jupiter. The Hammerheads are 8-18 in the second half and are in last place. Overall, Jupiter is 42-51. Jupiter is second to last in the FSL with a .243 team batting average, but is third with a 3.31 staff earned run average.
THE SERIES ... Jupiter took three of four games played in Lakeland earlier this season. Lakeland won the first game, 9-3 as Audy Ciriaco hit one of his two grand slams on the season while Jeramy Laster and Chris Carlson also went deep. That apparently angered the Hammerheads as Jupiter outscored Lakeland 22-4 the next three games. The third game saw Jupiter’s Brandon Tripp hit for the cycle in a 10-1 Hammerhead win.
RIDE THE CYCLE ... Michael Bertram hit for the cycle in the opening game of the Charlotte series becoming the first Lakeland player to accomplish the feat since Jacques Landry on May 8, 1998 against the then St. Petersburg Devil Rays. As rare as hitting for a single, double, triple and a home run in the same game, it was the second time a player has done so at Joker Marchant Stadium this season. Earlier, Jupiter’s Brandon Tripp hit for the cycle on May 28.
HAVE A SERIES ... In addition to aforementioned cycle, Michael Bertram went 11x17 (.647) for the four games against Charlotte and with two games with four hits. He now has a six-game hit streak in which he is 13x26 (.500).
TEN-GAME HIT STREAK ... Matching Bertram for hitting prowess is Jordan Newton who has collected hits in each of his last ten games in which he is 15x35 (.428) with three doubles, a triple and four runs batted in.
LASTER HITS THE TOP FIVE ... Jeramy Laster homered on Monday evening giving him seven for the season and 31 for his Lakeland career spanning the last two seasons. Laster now ranks fifth on the Lakeland all-time home run list, just one behind Roland Rollin (1980-83) who ranks fourth with 32 homers. Leo Daigle (2000-02) holds the franchise record with 41 home runs in his three seasons while Garth McKinney (2005-06) and Alejandro Freire (1997-98) rank second and third, respectively with 35 and 34 round-trippers.
WHO NEEDS DEFENSE? ... Lakeland committed a season-high five errors on Tuesday, but still came out on top in a 12-3 win over Charlotte.
STARTERS SOLID ... The Lakeland starting pitching staff has not allowed an earned run in the last two games as Andrew Hess (6.1) and Mauricio Robles (6.0) posted back-to-back solid outings. Hess now ranks eighth in the FSL with a 3.18 ERA. Robles has not allowed an earned run in his last 21.1 innings pitched. Against Charlotte he tossed 6.0 innings allowed a pair of unearned runs while striking out a season-high 11 batters, topping the mark of 10 he recorded in his second outing for Lakeland on June 27.
PICKET FENCES ... The Flying Tigers recorded 11 runs in back-to-back games on July 17 and 18 marking the first time the team has reached double digits scored in consecutive games July 23 and 24 of last season when the team reached the 11-run plateau in games against Vero Beach and Sarasota.
HOME-RUN BATTLE ... Lakeland’s Chris Carlson and Jupiter’s Mike Stanton are tied for second in the Florida State League with 12 home runs. Both players trail Chris Parmelee who leads the league with 14 dingers.
THE COMMANDER … Andy Barkett is in his second season with Lakeland with a 108-118 record (67-70 in year one). In his rookie season as manager, he led Oneonta to a 44-32 record in the New York-Penn League in 2007.
EX-LAKELANDERS GETTIN’ IT DONE ... Toledo’s Wilkin Ramirez is hitting .375 (24x64) with three doubles, a triple, four home runs and 13 runs batted in over his last 17 games while Brent Dlugach has hit safely in each of his last nine games, batting .412 (14x34) with four doubles and two RBI ... Erie’s Brennan Boesch is second in the Eastern League with 18 home runs while Ryan Strieby is third with 17 home runs. Strieby has hit safely in eight of his last nine games batting .412 (14x34) while Casper Wells has hit safely in each of his last nine games, batting .382 (13x34) with four doubles, a triple, two home runs and 10 RBI. Santo De Leon is hitting .347 (17x49) with six doubles, a triple, three home runs and 13 RBI over his last 14 games. De Leon was named the Eastern League Player of the Week for July 13-19.
Views expressed in “Mission Notes” are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Lakeland Flying Tigers.
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