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Clearwater – The Clearwater Threshers defeated the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels 7-4 Thursday night at BayCare Ballpark.
The Threshers (43-40, 7-10) opened the scoring in the bottom of the first. A hit-by-pitch and a pair of Mussels errors brought John Spikerman around the bases, making it 1-0.
The Mussels (34-48, 7-11) answered quickly In the second. Byron Chourio reached on a leadoff hit-by-pitch to open the inning. Yohander Martinez followed with a double off the wall in right-center, plating Chourio and tying the game.
The tie would not last, as Clearwater responded in the bottom of the frame. Dante Nori doubled down the left field line to retake the lead. He later scored on another Mussels' error, extending the margin 3-1.
In the fourth, Nori reached on a leadoff hit-by-pitch. A stolen base and wild pitch advanced him to third. Two batters later he scored on an Eduardo Tait fly ball that reached the warning track in straight-away center field, making it 4-1.
Thresher starter Guissepe Velasquez allowed one run across five strong innings. He struck out a pair of batters and retired the final seven men he faced.
Mussels' starter Eli Jones allowed four runs (two earned) across his five innings. He struck out five hitters while issuing just one walk.
Lefthander AJ Wilson entered for the Threshers in the sixth. He issued walks to Caleb McNeely and Bryan Acuna to begin his outing. Blaze O'Saben then singled to load the bases. Martinez followed with a fly ball to center, plating McNeely and making it 4-2. Two batters later, Javier Roman worked a walk to reload the basses. Luis Avila was then called on from the Thresher bullpen. He proceeded to issue a four-pitch walk to Jose Rodriguez, making it 4-3.
The next inning, Yasser Mercedes reached on another leadoff walk. He stole second and later took third on a wild pitch. Acuna brought him home on a slow roller to short, retying the game 4-4.
The tie was once again short lived. Spikerman and Tait connected on back-to-back doubles to begin the bottom of the seventh and put Clearwater back in front 5-4.
Two batters later, Alirio Ferrebus drove in Tait on an infield single, making it 6-4. Matt Gabbert (0-1) covered the sixth and seventh innings for the Mussels.
ler Stasiowski allowed a two-out homer to Nori as he extended the Thresher lead 7-4.
With his single in the third, Damuery Pena extended his hitting streak to seven games.
The series continues today at 6:30 p.m. Christian Becerra (1-1, 2.84) starts for Fort Myers, with coverage beginning at 6:20 p.m. on the Mighty Mussels Baseball Network.