CLEARWATER, Fla. - Cord Sandberg collected a season-high four hits out of the leadoff spot to pace Clearwater in an 8-3 win over the Daytona Tortugas on Saturday night.Clearwater (40-32, 2-0) has taken the first two games from Daytona, outscoring the Tortugas 17-5.Sandberg finished 4-for-5 with a double, RBI, and
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Cord Sandberg collected a season-high four hits out of the leadoff spot to pace Clearwater in an 8-3 win over the Daytona Tortugas on Saturday night.
Clearwater (40-32, 2-0) has taken the first two games from Daytona, outscoring the Tortugas 17-5.
Sandberg finished 4-for-5 with a double, RBI, and two runs scored. Edgar Garcia worked a season-high 5.1 innings in the victory, limiting the Tortugas (33-34, 0-2) to just two runs.
Clearwater jumped ahead in the first inning against Jonathon Crawford (0-4), after Cornelius Randolph grounded into a force play with the bases loaded, pushing home Emmanuel Marrero.
After the Tortugas tied it in the second, Clearwater capitalized on a four-walk inning from Crawford to take the lead for good.
Sandberg led off the third with a single to right, before four-consecutive walks and a wild pitch plated a pair to make it 3-1. Deivi Grullon tacked on a sacrifice fly to put Clearwater up by three.
The Threshers followed with another three-spot in the fourth. Jose Pujols got it going with a single to center, and Sandberg doubled to right-center with one out. Marrero followed by knocking a two-run double to left to open up a 6-1 advantage.
Jake Paulson entered in relief, and induced a flyout before Wilson Garcia added a base hit up the middle to plate Marrero.
Edgar Garcia worked into the fifth inning for the first time in his career, limiting the Tortugas to just two runs on seven hits and a walk.
Tyler Gilbert followed up Garcia's performance with 2.2 shutout frames in relief, before the Threshers added their final run on Sandberg's eighth-inning RBI single, his fourth hit of the night.
Will Hibbs made his Threshers debut in the ninth inning. He surrendered a leadoff double to Reydel Medina, which Daytona converted into a run after a pair of groundouts.
The Threshers will have a chance to take the series on Saturday, when Alberto Tirado (4-4) toes the rubber against Vladimir Gutierrez (4-5), with first pitch at 6:15 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on threshersbaseball.com starting at 6 p.m.
