April 26, 2008 - LAKELAND, F.L. (April 26, 2008) – Two sets of fireworks were provided to the Lakeland Flying Tiger fans on Saturday night at Joker Marchant Stadium. The usual post-game fireworks took place after Tiger starter Jonah Nickerson took a perfect game into the eighth inning leading Lakeland to a 3-2 win over the Fort Myers Miracle. Nickerson picked up his second win of the season behind his season-best 7.1 innings, giving up the two Miracle runs on two hits while fanning four.
Déjà vu arrived on Saturday as a pair of errors came back to haunt the Miracle in the bottom of the sixth. After Brandon Timm and Cale Iorg both reached on fielding errors by Danny Valencia at third, Justin Justice made the Miracle pay with a two-run double to right. Brennan Boesch collected a two-out hit in the seventh, later coming around on a Jeramy Laster single to center, for the eventual game-deciding run.
The Miracle finally picked up their first hit of the night on a lead-off bloop single by Johnny Woodard in the eighth. After Wilson Ramos chased Nickerson from the game with his flare to right, Whit Robbins would greet reliever Angel Castro with a two-run triple down the right-field line, cutting the deficit to one. Robbins, representing the tying run at third, was thrown out at the plate by Lakeland second baseman Scott Sizemore on a groundball by Danny Santiestiban with the infield drawn in.
Kevin Slowey, making his final rehab start for the Miracle, had a no-hitter of his own in five innings of work. The right-hander unofficially threw 58 pitches, 42 of them for strikes allowing just one walk with five strikeouts.
A Sunday matinee will take place between the same two teams at 1:00 p.m. from Joker Marchant Stadium. The Miracle send RHP Deolis Guerra (2-0, 1.42) to the mound opposite RHP Matt O’Brien (1-0, 4.32). Sunday’s contest in Lakeland can be heard on AM-1410/1660 with the pre-game showing starting at 12:45 p.m.
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