By SPECIAL TO THE NEWS-PRESS

In front of the second-largest crowd to watch an Opening Night game at
Hammond Stadium, the Fort Myers Miracle gave the 8,076 fans something to go home
cheering about as they defeated the Sarasota Red 6-5 in 10 innings on Saturday
night.

Brock Peterson, who was 0-4 with three strikeouts before his at-bat in the
10th inning, came up with a flare to right that scored Denard Span from third
base and gave the Miracle their third consecutive victory.

Span led off the inning with a walk. Matt Tolbert laid down a sacrifice bunt.
Reds catcher Miguel Perez picked up the ball and tried to throw out Span at
second, but the throw went into center field. That enabled Span to go to third.
After an intentional walk to Matt Moses loaded the bases, Peterson poked one
over the drawn-in infield that sent the Miracle to victory.

The game went into extra innings because the Miracle scored the tying run in
the bottom of the eighth on three balls that never left the infield. Ron
Perodin led the inning off with an infield single to short. Span then reached on
a
bunt single. Matt Tolbert sacrificed the runners over and then Moses' infield
single to first scored Perodin.

The two teams will play again at 1:05 p.m today. The Miracle send
right-hander Adam Harben to the mound against Reds righty Joe Powers.

Published on April 10, 2005


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