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Miracle sweep Cardinals Thursday night

By Staff | Apr 24, 2009

Miracle Rene Leveret (39) gets a hero’s welcome to the dugout from teammates after hitting his first home run of the season against Palm Beach Thursday night. More photos are available online at: cu.cape-coral-daily-breeze.com. Photo by Yunet Jomolca

Rene Leveret launched a three-run home run to the deepest part of the Hammond Stadium in the Fort Myers Miracle’s 8-0 shutout and series sweep of the Palm Beach Cardinals Thursday night.

The Miracle (9-4) grounded Palm Beach after the Cards arrived with a one-game lead in the Florida State League’s South Division standings. Instead, the Cardinals (7-6) depart two games behind the streaking Miracle.

Manager Jeff Smith’s club has won four straight, improving to 6-2 at home.

Left-handed starter Tyler Robertson (1-0) seems to have solved some of the control issues that led to seven walks in fewer than six innings before Thursday’s game. Robertson pitched a scoreless five innings scattering five hits, walking just one, and struck out five in his first win of 2009.

Southpaw Ryan Kulik (1-1) suffered the loss by giving up six hits in three innings, along with six runs – all earned – and two walks with four strikeouts. Steve Hirschfeld and Alex Burnett didn’t allow a single hit in two innings each. Hirschfeld struck out four, and Burnett fanned three.

The Miracle scored four in the bottom of the third to take the lead, highlighted by Leveret’s three-run blast to deep right- center field just to the right of the 405-foot marker. Leveret’s first home run of the season was more than enough to support the shutout hurled by the pitching staff.

Ben Revere, Deibinson Romero, and Estarlin de los Santos had multi-hit games at the plate, including a triple for de los Santos. Revere swiped second base twice for his sixth and seventh stolen bases of the season.

The Miracle outscored Palm Beach 30-7 during the three-game series.

Fort Myers starts a six-game road trip Friday night at Roger Dean Stadium, against the Jupiter Hammerheads. Mike McCardell (0-2, 11.25) is expected to start for the Miracle, who are 2-1 against Jupiter this season.