Threshers Shell Tortugas, 15-0

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Chace Numata unleashed a career-high five hits to lead Clearwater in a decisive victory in the series finale, as the Threshers set season-highs in runs and hits in a 15-0 rout of the Daytona Tortugas on Sunday afternoon at Bright House Field.

The 15 runs were the most for Clearwater in a game since an 18-5 win at Daytona on May 31, 2015.

Clearwater tallied 19 hits, led by Numata's 5-for-6 day. The Threshers catcher edged closer to contention for the FSL batting title after lacing five singles, knocking in two, and scoring three runs to lead the offense.

Kyle Martin, Aaron Brown, and Malquin Canelo all drove in three runs, and Zach Coppola finished 4-for-5 with three runs scored.

The Threshers (35-22) took the series from Daytona (33-22), and kept pace with Dunedin after the Blue Jays won 12-7 at Lakeland. Clearwater remains two games back of the Blue Jays with 13 games left in the regular season.

Clearwater got it going early, plating a pair in the first off starter Jonathon Crawford (1-1). With runners at the corners and one down, Brown delivered a sacrifice fly, and Martin singled home Numata to put the Threshers ahead 2-0.

An inning later, Herlis Rodriguez hopped on the first offering from Crawford and smashed a solo shot down the right field line to bring home Clearwater's third run, on Rodriguez' first home run of the season.

The Threshers broke it open in the fourth, plating six runs with two outs.

Numata singled to left off reliever Juan Martinez, scoring Coppola from second, and after Brown walked, Martin doubled in both Numata and Brown. Josh Tobias drew a base on balls, and the Tortugas called in reliever Brennan Bernardino.

Drew Stankiewicz singled to right to score Martin, and Canelo followed by driving a double to right-center to bring across two more and make it a 9-0 lead.

Drew Anderson (2-1) was the beneficiary of all the run support on Sunday, and the right-hander got it done on his end as well. Anderson limited Daytona to just three hits - all singles - across five scoreless innings, walking one and striking out four.

Anderson lowered his ERA to 1.69 in seven starts, and has not permitted an earned run at Bright House Field in 25.1 innings.

Up 9-0, the Threshers were not quite finished.

After a Stankiewicz popper to right was lost in the sun and fell in for a double to start the seventh, Canelo singled him home and moved to second on an error by right fielder Aristides Aquino. Rodriguez grounded one up the middle, and Coppola's sinking liner to left plated Canelo.

An out later, Numata knocked one to center to load the bases, and Brown greeted new reliever Ariel Hernandez with a single up the middle to make it 13-0. A Tobias fielder's choice later pushed home Numata to extend the lead to 14.

The final run of the day came in the eighth, when Raul Rivas singled in his first Threshers at-bat and later scored on Numata's fifth hit of the day.

Austin Davis twirled two scoreless behind Anderson, and Ulises Joaquin and Jeff Singer retired all six batters the rest of the way as the Threshers combined on the four-hit shutout, their 13th whitewash win of the year.

After an off day on Monday, the Threshers are back home to host the Brevard County Manatees starting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Brandon Leibrandt (2-1) will take the hill, and the game will be broadcast live on threshersbaseball.com and the TuneIn app starting at 6:45 p.m.