THE SERIES ... Lakeland travels to Bradenton for four games, July 15-18 at McKechnie Field with all four games slated for 6:30 pm. The two teams split a four-game set at Joker Marchant Stadium on May 21-24 with Bradenton posting a 9-1 win in game won before Lakeland came back to squeak out a 4-3 win in 10 innings. After a 7-6 win in game three by the Flying Tigers, the Marauders won the finale, 2-1 in the third straight one-run game.
THE FLYING TIGERS (6-12, 6th North, 7.5 GB; 39-48-1 overall) ... Lakeland was swept in four games by St. Lucie in the most recent series. After being shut out in the middle two games, Lakeland finally got on the board in the bottom of the ninth of game four to snap a streak of 29 consecutive scoreless innings. The Flying Tigers are 4-12 since seeing an eight-game win streak snapped on June 27. Francisco Martinez leads Lakeland and is third in the Florida State League with 31 extra-base hits. Raph Rhymes is fourth in the league with 40 walks while Javier Betancourt strikes out once every 13.21 at bats, making him the second toughest hitter to strikeout in the FSL.
THE MARAUDERS (11-8, T-3rd South, 2.0 GB; 43-46 overall) ... Bradenton has been on a roller coaster this month. The squad won five im a row from July 2-6, before dropping five straight. However, the Marauders have won their last two games, winning at Daytona 4-3 in 10 frames on Sunday and 5-2 on Monday. Chris Diaz is 9x21 over his last six games for .429 clip while Justin Maffei went 7x12 the final three games at Daytona. Jin-De Jhang is fifth in the Florida State League with a .300 batting average while Austin Meadows is tied for eighth with a .295 mark and is fifth with 95 base hits and 47 runs scored. JaCoby Jones has driven in 48 runs, fourth-best total in the league while Eric Weiss is tied for second with a .372 on-base percentage. Bradenton leads the FSL in bating average (.276), runs scored (378) and base hits (867) and is third with 92 stolen bases. On the flip side, the Marauders pitching staff has the second highest ERA in the league (3.74).
LAKELAND PROBABLE STARTERS
WED., JULY 15 - Trent Szkutnik (0-2, 5.19 ERA) ... Szkutnik has had back-to-back impressive outings but has nothing to show for his efforts. After holding Dunedin to one run on four hits with six strikeouts in 6.0 innings on July 5, he came back and limited St. Lucie to one run on eight hits in 5.0 frames with three K’s on July 10. Szkutnik has recorded 21 strikeouts in his 26.0 innings, but has allowed 38 hits as opponents are batting .345 against him.
THU., JULY 16 - Brennan Smith (4-1, 2.02 ERA) ... Smith held St. Lucie to a pair of runs on five hits in 7.0 innings and punched out a career-high 10 batters on July 11, but was tagged with the loss. It was his first loss of the 2015 season. In his last six starts, Smith has given up only five runs on 17 hits over 28.0 innings for a 1.60 ERA in the half-dozen games with 30 strikeouts and just five walks. Since joining the starting rotation, Smith is 3-1 with a 1.55 ERA in six previous starts.
FRI., JULY 17 - Kevin Ziomek (5-7, 4.07 ERA) ... Ziomek, who is tied for second in the FSL with 90 strikeouts, allowed four runs—three earned—on six hits in 6.0 innings with four strikeouts and three walks in a loss in his last start on July 12 against St. Lucie. He has now surrendered eight runs on 27 hits in his last four outings and after whiffing a season-high 10 batters on July 2 at Daytona, has recorded five strikeouts in his last two starts. He faced Bradenton on May 23 and gave up six runs on 10 hits in 4.2 innings but did not factor into the decision.
SAT., JULY 18 - Locke St. John (2-8, 4.88 ERA) ... St. John limited St. Lucie to a pair of runs on seven hits in 4.0 innings in taking the loss in his last start on July 13 vs. St. Lucie. He has struck out 12 batters over his last three starts while walking only three batters. St. John faced Bradenton on May 22 and held the Marauders to three runs on eight hits in 6.1 innings, but did not get a decision.
WITHER THE OFFENSE ... Lakeland amassed 40 hits in the three-game Dunedin series on July 4-6, but has had 48 hits in the last seven games for a .191 team batting average in that span. Of those 48 hits only eight were for extra bases. The Flying Tigers struck out 33 times in the St. Lucie series and stranded 30 runners.
STINGY BULLPEN ... Lakeland relievers have given up just 10 earned runs—15 total—in the last 68.1 innings (over 15 games) for a 1.32 earned run average since June 29.
NEW GUYS THROWING BLANKS ... Tyler Ford worked a scoreless inning on Monday and has not been scored upon in his five outings with the Flying Tigers, throwing 10.2 shutout innings ... Gabe Hemmer has thrown 8.1 innings without giving up a run since joining Lakeland ... Ryan Castellanos tossed 3.0 scoreless innings in Sunday’s game and has not allowed a run in his two outings with Lakeland so far.
ONE HOT BAT ... Francisco Martinez has the one hot bat in the Lakeland line-up. He has hits in nine of his last 11 games with two hits in six of those games. Martinez is 14x45 during that streak for a .311 average with seven runs scored, four doubles, three homers, and 10 RBI.
GREINING IT OUT ... Grayson Greiner collected four hits, including a pair of doubles in his three games in the St. Lucie series. Behind the dish, Greiner has thrown out 27 would-be base stealers in 81 attempts for a 33.3 percentage, seventh best among all FSL catchers. Overall, Lakeland catchers have gunned down 34.9 percent, fourth best in the league.
MULTI-HIT GAMES ... Francisco Martinez has 26 games with two or more hits inclining five games with three hits. Javier Betancourt has 25 multi-hit games, including one four-hit game and three three-hit games. Dominic Ficociello, since promoted to Double-A, leads Lakeland with 29 multi-hit games this season, including five games with three hits.
HIT THE ROAD, JACK ... Tyler Hanover has a lofty .327 batting average in 17 road games while Jiwan James has a .272 average in 39 road games and Ben Verlander is hitting .256 in 36 road games.
FICOCIELLO MOVES UP ... Dominic Ficociello was promoted to AA Erie on Tuesday. The Flying Tigers first baseman was seventh in the Florida State League with a .297 batting average and was tied for third with 97 base hits. Ficociello had started at first for 76 of Lakeland’s 88 games with Bobby Borchering (since released) manning the first sack for 12 games and Francisco Martinez making one start at first. Also on Tuesday, Curt Powell was added to the roster from AA Erie. Powell began the season with the Flying Tigers and was hitting .342 in 33 games before earning a step up the ladder to the SeaWolves roster on May 18. He played in 20 games before going on the disabled list on June 16 where he stayed until July 2. On Wednesday, outfielder Austin Schotts was activated from the disabled list while catcher Tim Remes was sent to Connecticut.
THE SKIPPER (thru 7/13) ... Dave Huppert ranks 17th among minor league manager in terms of wins a 1,893-1,746 record entering this series. Next up for Huppert is Cal Ermer who is in 16th place with a 1,906-1,728 record from 1947-1984. A 2012 FSL Hall of Fame honoree, Huppert is in his 28th season as a minor league manager. This is his fifth season with the Flying Tigers and he has a 285-285 record at Lakeland, including a FSL championship in 2012.
UP NEXT ... The Flying Tigers will return home for a three-game series July 19-21 against Clearwater.
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