Garcia Homers, Threshers Lose 6-4 Sunday Afternoon
BOX SCORE CLEARWATER, Fla. - Luis Garcia hit his first home run of the season and D.J. Stewart’s bat stayed hot, but it wasn’t enough as the Threshers fell to the Flying Tigers 6-4 on Mother's Day Sunday afternoon. Lakeland (3-3) opened up scoring in the third inning. Griffin Dey
CLEARWATER, Fla. - Luis Garcia hit his first home run of the season and D.J. Stewart’s bat stayed hot, but it wasn’t enough as the Threshers fell to the Flying Tigers 6-4 on Mother's Day Sunday afternoon.
Lakeland (3-3) opened up scoring in the third inning. Griffin Dey sent a double into right field on a play that injured right fielder Ben Pelletier. Eric De La Rosa singled him home and then stole second base. Kingston Liniak followed up with a ground ball back to the mound and Wenceel Perez took a pitch off the hip that loaded the bases. Nick Quintana hit a line drive double into left to give the Flying Tigers a 4-0 advantage.
In the home half of the inning, Luis Garcia launched his first longball of the season over the left field fence to put the Threshers (3-3) on the board 4-1.
The Flying Tigers added to the damage in the fifth. De La Rosa drew a four-pitch walk, stole second base for the second time in the contest, and then reached third on a throwing error by catcher Chris Burke. Perez reached base on a fielder's choice and De La Rosa scored on the missed catch to extend the Flying Tigers lead 5-1.
The Threshers chipped away at the lead in the sixth inning. D.J. Stewart greeted the first pitch he saw with a line drive double to left, extending his hitting streak to five games. Nicolas Torres hit a groundball into right field to score Stewart, the Threshers still trailing 5-2.
De La Rosa hit a solo home run in the seventh to stretch Lakeland’s lead to 6-2.
Clearwater battled back in the bottom of the eighth courtesy of an RBI single by Corbin Williams and an RBI groundout by Stewart, but it wasn’t enough as the Flying Tigers won the final game of the series 6-4.
Cristian Hernandez (0-1) suffered the loss for the Threshers, he allowed four runs on three hits while striking out seven and not issuing a walk in 2.2 innings of work.
After a league-wide off day Monday, The Threshers hit the road May 11-16 as they face the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels at Hammond Stadium for a six-game series.
While the team is away, BayCare Ballpark will host the Southeast League matchup of the Dunedin Blue Jays and Bradenton Marauders May 11-16. More information about this series can be found here.