Arauz's Clutch K's Key 4-3 Win

BRADENTON, Fla. - The cards were stacked against Harold Arauz when he entered the ballgame on Saturday night.
Clearwater clung to a one-run lead in the sixth inning. Bradenton had the bases loaded with only one out when Arauz toed the rubber.
The right-hander came up clutch, dealing three consecutive strikes to Casey Hughston to strike him out swinging at a breaking ball for the second out. Arauz then quickly got ahead of Mitchell Tolman, and froze him on a pitch on the outer black to strand all three baser runners and keep the Threshers in the lead.
Clearwater emerged victorious in a tight battle with the Marauders on Star Wars Night at LECOM Park, as the Threshers held on to even up the series after a 4-3 victory.
The Threshers (52-45, 14-13) grabbed a quick advantage in the first, connecting for three consecutive singles to load the bases against Cam Vieaux (2-2). Zach Green gave Clearwater the lead by delivering a sacrifice fly to plate Derek Campbell.
Franklyn Kilomé retired the first seven he faced before working around a pair of one-out singles in the third. Jordan George brought the teams even in the fourth, knocking a solo homer to right to tie the game at one.
Clearwater answered in the next half inning, when Grenny Cumana clubbed a double to left, and with two outs Wilson Garcia came through with a liner over third to score Cumana and put the Threshers back ahead, 2-1.
Bradenton (54-41, 17-11) tied it up again in the bottom half, but again the Threshers had an answer.
Emmanuel Marrero got it going with a one-out walk, and Austin Bossart struck a double to the gap in left-center to plate Marrero and push the Threshers back ahead. Carlos Duran then blooped a hit to right to score Bossart and make it 4-2.
The back-and-forth continued in the bottom half, when the Marauders loaded the bases on a double, walk, and hit batter, before Stephen Alemais' RBI single cut the lead to one.
Kilome struck out Alfredo Reyes before giving way to Arauz with the bases full and one out.
After working out of the jam to strand the tying run at third, Arauz went on to toss a perfect seventh inning as well before turning it over to closer Jeff Singer.
Singer retired the side in order in the eighth, but the Marauders refused to go quietly in the ninth.
Kevin Krause notched a pinch-hit double to put the tying run on second, and back-to-back walks filled the bases with just one out. Singer bared down and induced a huge strikeout of Will Craig for the second out.
After falling behind Jordan George with two outside the zone, Singer came back to get George on a fly out to left to seal his league-leading 18th save.
Game three of the series is set for Sunday at 1 p.m., as lefty JoJo Romero (2-1) toes the rubber opposed by Bret Helton (5-1). The game will be broadcast live on threshersbaseball.com starting at 12:45 p.m.