TAMPA, Fla. - Darick Hall blasted his league-leading sixth home run of the season in the sixth inning on Saturday afternoon, lifting the Clearwater Threshers past the Tampa Tarpons in a 7-3 victory at George M. Steinbrenner Field.The five-run sixth inning backed a strong start from Mauricio Llovera (2-0), who
TAMPA, Fla. - Darick Hall blasted his league-leading sixth home run of the season in the sixth inning on Saturday afternoon, lifting the Clearwater Threshers past the Tampa Tarpons in a 7-3 victory at George M. Steinbrenner Field.
The five-run sixth inning backed a strong start from Mauricio Llovera (2-0), who delivered five innings of two-run ball for Clearwater (4-12). Llovera limited Tampa to just one hit, walking three and striking out seven in the victory.
Llovera had held Tampa (7-9) hitless through the first three innings, before Estevan Florial singled to right to open the fourth.
Florial swiped second, and Brandon Wagner drew a walk to put two on with nobody out. Isiah Gilliam then hit a high one-hopper halfway toward the hill, that scored Florial all the way from second with the game's first run.
Clearwater came back to tie it up in the fifth. Jose Gomez singled to open the inning and moved to second on a balk, and Raul Rivas put down a sacrifice bunt to advance Gomez to third. Luke Williams worked his way on after a nine-pitch walk.
With runners at the corners, Williams broke for second and Gomez took off for home, as the Threshers pulled off the double steal to tie the ballgame at one.
Tampa regained the advantage without the aid of a hit in the bottom half, utilizing a hit batter, walk, sac bunt, and a sacrifice fly to pull ahead 2-1.
The Threshers rallied to go ahead for good in the sixth facing reliever Cristian Morris (0-1).
Jose Pujols and Danny Mayer got it going with back-to-back singles to open the inning, and Gomez bunted them both into scoring position. Rivas delivered with a single past second to score Pujols and tie the game at two.
The Tarpons again went to the bullpen, calling upon lefty Trevor Lane. Down in the count 1-2, Adam Haseley came through with a single to center to bring home Mayer and give the Threshers the lead.
Lane got ahead of Hall with two strikes, but Hall turned on the next offering and unloaded his sixth home run of the season. The three-run shot gave Clearwater a 6-3 lead.
The Tarpons managed to get a run back against reliever Aaron Brown in the home half, but Brown limited the damage to just a Diego Castillo RBI grounder before setting the side down in order in the seventh.
Alexis Rivero took it the rest of the way, earning the first save of the season for a Clearwater hurler. The Threshers gave him an extra run to work with in the ninth on a Gomez RBI single, before Rivero set the Tarpons down in order in the bottom half to close out the win.
The series wraps up with a rubber game on Sunday, as Sixto Sanchez (0-0) will take the hill against Nick Green (2-0) with a 1 p.m. first pitch. The game will be broadcast live on threshersbaseball.com starting at 12:45 p.m.
