A head-first slide into second base by Miracle Ben Revere (7) beats the throw and tag by Stone Crabs second baseman Richard De Los Santos Thursday night. More photos are available online at: cu.cape-coral-daily-breeze.com. Photo by Yune Jomolca

More last at-bat heroics between the Charlotte Stone Crabs and Fort Myers Miracle Thursday night.

Chris Cates’ slow roller to second in the bottom of the ninth inning sent Mark Dolenc sliding across home plate with the game-winning run and a 5-4 Miracle victory at Hammond Stadium.

The four-game series between the Florida State League rivals, tied atop the South Division standings with identical 21-19 records, continues Friday night. The first two games of this series were decided in extra innings.

Charlotte scored first and rallied to re-take the lead before finally yielding to the Miracle in dramatic fashion. Matt Williams (2-0) picked up the win with two scoreless innings of relief.

David Newmann went 5 1/3 innings and allowed two runs on five hits, including a game-tying fourth-inning homer by the Miracle’s Allan de san Miguel. The lefty left in line for the victory when the Stone Crabs pushed runs across in the fifth and seventh innings to open a 4-2 lead.

Fort Myers went to work against reliever Jose Mejias in the bottom of the seventh, sending eight men to the plate and scoring a pair of runs to force yet another tie game situation.

Estarlin De Los Santos tripled to open the frame and was brought on Alejandro Machado’s sacrifice fly, but Even Bigley provided the game-tying double that chased home Rene Leveret and tied things up at 4-4.

Austin Hinkle (2-4) put out a fire for the Stone Crabs in the eighth inning, but was unable to escape ninth-inning heat, as a lead-off single by Dolenc and a walk to De San Miguel were followed by a wild pitch putting two runners in scoring position with only one out.

Cates then sent a slow roller past the mound to give the Miracle the 5-4 win, and the second last at-bat win in this four-game series.

Charlotte 100 110 100 – 4 11 2

Fort Myers 000 200 201 – 5 13 0

W – M. Williams (2-0). L – Hinkle (2-4).

2B – O’Malley, Ashley, Bigley. 3B – De Los Santos. HR – De San Miguel.

LOB – Stone Crabs 8; Miracle 15.

Stone Crabs 7, Miracle 6: It took extra innings for the second straight night, but the Stone Crabs rallied from a 6-0 first-inning deficit to stun the Miracle in 12 innings Wednesday night.

The Miracle won Tuesday’s game 4-3 in 11 innings at Hammond Stadium, but Wednesday it was the Stone Crabs’ turn at Charlotte Sports Park.

The Miracle roughed up Jake McGee and reliever Darin Downs in the first inning for six runs before a single out was recorded. Chris Parmelee had a two-run double, Evan Bigley crushed a mammoth three-run home run, and McGee was out of the game after allowing five runs without getting anyone out.

Mark Dolenc greeted Darin Downs with a solo homer as the Miracle went back-to-back, but their offense went cold after that as the Stone Crabs scored seven unanswered runs to win.

The Miracle had their chances, including Parmelee being thrown out at home in the 10th with the potential go-ahead run, and stranding baserunners in the second, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, ninth, 10th, 11th, and 12th, but the came up empty.

Drew Anderson lined a single to right-center in the bottom of the 12th, with the bases loaded and one out, to cap the Stone Crabs comeback.

Henry Arias (3-4), working for the second straight game, took the loss for the Miracle while Richard de los Santos (1-0) got the win.

Miracle reliever Loek van Mil surrendered a game-tying, solo homer to Mike McCormick leading off the eighth to blow the save. The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Miracle.

The start time of the game was delayed by a just over than an hour by rain.