CLEARWATER, Fla - The Threshers swept the Daytona Tortugas with a 5-2 victory on Wednesday night, in the finale of a three-game set at Spectrum Field. Clearwater (15-11) (47-47) has won four straight games, including the last three against the FSL North first half champion.Mauricio Llovera (3-7) delivered a six-inning
CLEARWATER, Fla - The Threshers swept the Daytona Tortugas with a 5-2 victory on Wednesday night, in the finale of a three-game set at Spectrum Field. Clearwater (15-11) (47-47) has won four straight games, including the last three against the FSL North first half champion.
Mauricio Llovera (3-7) delivered a six-inning performance, allowing one run on four hits as he struck out five batters. He did not allow a walk for the third time this season. It was his first victory since April 21 against the Tampa Tarpons. The Threshers starting pitchers in this series dealt six innings apiece, and only allowed three earned runs.
In the third inning, Jose Gomez reached on an error by second baseman Randy Ventura. Gomez moved to second after a walk to Mickey Moniak, the third free pass for Moniak in his last five games. Henri Lartigue grounded into a fielder's choice, which advanced Gomez to third. The Threshers scored on a wild pitch to give them a 1-0 advantage over Daytona (13-14) (50-43).
Kyle Martin tacked on his fifth double of the season in the fourth inning, and Grenny Cumana singled on his way to a 3-for-4 evening. The three hits for Cumana tied a season high, his third time in 27 games played. Martin was pushed over to third on the Cumana base hit and scored on a sacrifice fly from Raul Rivas to give Clearwater a 2-0 lead.
The Threshers opened it up with three runs in the fifth inning against Tortuga starter Andrew Jordan (1-2). Singles from Lartigue and Gamboa, and a walk to Luke Williams set the scene for a two-run single for Martin to extend the lead to 4-0. With runners on the corners, Cumana added an RBI single to his standout performance to put the Threshers ahead 5-0. Clearwater scored 11 runs in the fifth inning throughout the series.
The Tortugas had each of their runs come via solo home runs. Brantley Bell led off the sixth inning with a home run to left field, the lone run given up by Llovera, to put Daytona on the board, 5-1. Taylor Trammell, the Sirius-XM Futures Game MVP, began the eighth with a drive to dead center field off reliever Jakob Hernandez to make the score 5-2.
Hernandez allowed just the home run to Trammell in the eighth, and pitched the final two innings, striking out three. It was the 11th time this season in which Hernandez has struck out three-plus batters.
Moniak went 1-for-2, with a career-high three walks, a single and a stolen base. Only two other players have walked three times in a game this season - Henri Lartigue and recently-promoted Austin Listi.
Clearwater continues the homestand with a three-game set against the Florida Fire Frogs beginning on Thursday, with first pitch at 7 p.m. The Threshers will send out McKenzie Mills against Florida's Joey Wentz. Clearwater leads the season series 5-4 against the FSL North foe. The pregame show will begin at 6:45 p.m. on threshersbaseball.com with Kirsten Karbach and Dominic Gallone on the call.
