Charles, Bass Power Threshers to Victory

CLEARWATER- Art Charles and Corey Bass hit back-to-back homers in the fifth inning to help the Clearwater Threshers take down the St. Lucie Mets 5-1 on Sunday at Bright House Field.

The Threshers (19-24) struck for two runs in the second inning after Bass drove in Brian Pointer with an infield single. Harold Martinez, who singled earlier in the frame, later scored on a wild pitch.

Clearwater got a strong start out of Colin Kleven, who earned the victory. Kleven (5-8) tossed six shutout innings while striking out seven and walking only three. The Threshers' right-hander has gone at least five innings in his last 16 starts.

The Mets (21-19) sent Luis Cessa to the mound, and the St. Lucie starter allowed five runs on seven hits over six innings and was charged with the loss.

In the fifth inning, Charles stepped into the box and crushed his team-leading 12th big fly of the season to right field. Bass followed and promptly deposited his first career professional homer to left-center to make the score 4-0.

The Threshers tacked on one more run in the inning after J.P. Crawford brought home Roman Quinn with a sacrifice fly. Quinn finished 1-for-3 with a run scored to extend his on-base streak to 18 games in a row.

The Mets pushed their lone run across in the eighth inning with two outs against Clearwater reliever Ulises Joaquin. After Joaquin walked both Maikis De La Cruz and Cam Maron with two outs, Jared King knocked a single to right scoring De La Cruz, but King was thrown out by Brian Pointer trying to stretch it into a double.

Pointer now has 11 outfield assists on the season.

Lee Ridenhour worked a hitless ninth inning to finish off the win. Ridenhour has allowed just two runs over his last 11 appearances out of the bullpen.

Clearwater will try to even up the four-game set as the series concludes Monday night at Bright House Field. First pitch is set for 7:00 p.m. Coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. on threshersbaseball.com