Morissette delivers another walk-off, Jacksonville sweeps Norfolk in finale

Cody Morissette did it again, and the second walk-off in as many nights turned Jacksonville’s last swing of Honey Dripper weekend into the finishing touch on a sweep. Morissette’s latest game-ending hit sent the Jumbo Shrimp past Norfolk, 6-5, before 9,201 fans at VyStar Ballpark, giving Jacksonville a 5-1 series edge and one more late-night highlight to add to a memorable weekend.

The finale had every bit of the tension that usually makes a minor league game stick. Jacksonville had the lead until Norfolk stormed back with four runs in the top of the ninth to tie it at 5-5, the kind of rally that can flatten a home crowd and swing momentum hard in the other direction. Instead, the Shrimp answered the pressure with one more clean finish, and Morissette ended it with his second straight walk-off knock, the sort of repeat heroics that can define a series.

That came one night after Morissette delivered the signature swing of the weekend, a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the 10th that completed Jacksonville’s dramatic 8-4 comeback win before 7,938 fans on Saturday night. Taken together, the back-to-back endings made Morissette the unmistakable center of the series and gave Jacksonville a rare two-night stretch of walk-off wins over the same opponent.

The offense was not a one-man act in Sunday’s finale. O’Donnell and Bastidas each homered in the 6-5 win, helping Jacksonville build enough early cushion to survive Norfolk’s late surge. That mattered for a club that entered the game at 29-22 and kept finding ways to respond when the score tightened. The Tides, meanwhile, dropped to 19-32 and left Florida having gone 1-5 in the series.

For Jacksonville, the sweep carried more than just a number in the standings. The Jumbo Shrimp have built a brand around drawing crowds and delivering a night-out atmosphere, and the ballpark showed it again with a Sunday turnout of 9,201 after Saturday’s 7,938. The franchise says it has collected marketing and sales awards since its rebrand before the 2017 season, and it continues to lead Florida in minor league attendance. On a weekend built around Honey Dripper festivities, the crowd got both the business end of that identity and the baseball end of it: a packed house, a late rally survived, and Morissette delivering the final blow again.