Jacksonville rallies in 10th, extends winning streak to five games

Jacob Berry kept Jacksonville’s hot start alive when the Jumbo Shrimp needed it most, lining the game-tying single in the ninth before Bennett Hostetler scored the winning run on a passed ball in the 10th for a 3-2 comeback win over Norfolk at Harbor Park. The victory was Jacksonville’s fifth straight and gave the Marlins’ Triple-A club another late-inning road result that does more than pad the standings. It keeps asking the same question: which Jumbo Shrimp bat is making Miami pay attention first?

Berry was the answer again. The 24-year-old third baseman went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI, and his ninth-inning hit erased a deficit that had looked stubborn for most of the night. He entered the day hitting .300 with 12 hits and seven RBI in 40 at-bats, and the production is starting to look less like an early-season flash and more like a real case for leverage at the next level. Jacksonville is defending its 2025 International League title and Triple-A National Championship, and Berry is giving the club the kind of middle-of-the-order damage that travels.

Jacksonville had to wait through a tight game built on small mistakes and one clean swing from Norfolk. The Tides scored on a bases-loaded balk and later on a Willy Vasquez sacrifice fly, while Patrick Monteverde held them to two runs on six hits over six innings, the most by a Jacksonville starter this season at that point. For a lineup that entered at 6-6 against a 3-9 Norfolk club, the margin for error was thin enough to make every late at-bat matter.

The finish belonged to Jacksonville’s depth. Hostetler, a 28-year-old catcher and Miami draft pick from the 18th round in 2021, was on base when the ball got away in the 10th. Jack Ralston then slammed the door with a 1-2-3 bottom of the inning, striking out two for his first save. Norfolk’s own recap said the Tides had dropped their second straight extra-inning game, and this one left Jacksonville with more than another notch in the win column. It left Berry looking like the hitter Miami has to track a little more closely.