Daytona held to one hit as Threshers claim series victory
CLEARWATER, Fla—The Daytona Tortugas had a quiet night at the plate as the Clearwater Threshers held the Tortugas to just one hit in a 6-1 defeat in front of 4,563 fans at BayCare Ballpark on Saturday night.
Clearwater (26-12) has now won four of the first five games of the series as Daytona (19-19) fell back to .500 for the first time since April 23.
After Daytona went down in order in the first, Clearwater threatened against Daytona starter Brian Edgington, loading the bases with one out on two singles and a walk. However, the right-hander induced a 4-3 double play to end the inning.
However, the Threshers struck in the second. Devin Saltiban led off by blasting the first of two solo home runs he would hit on the night. After a walk, Raylin Heredia tripled home another run, then came home on a bloop single by Avery Owusu-Asiedu to put Clearwater up 3-0.
The Tortugas did nothing in the second against Clearwater starter George Klassen, who set Daytona down six-up, six-down in the first two innings. He departed for Mavis Graves who followed with a 1-2-3 third.
In the fourth, Daytona got on the board as Yerlin Confidan reached on an error, then moved to second on a groundout. With two outs, Ariel Almonte blooped a single into left to score Confidan to cut the deficit to 3-1. That wound up as the only hit of the night for Daytona.
Clearwater got those runs back in the fourth as Luis Caicuto crushed a two-out, two-run double to right-center against Edgington, staking the Threshers to a 5-1 advantage.
At that point, Graves locked in, allowing just a fifth-inning walk over the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings. On the other side, Tortugas right-hander Anyer Laureano matched zeroes, also walking just one over 3.0 hitless innings as he set a career high with six strikeouts to hold serve.
Daytona put together the makings of a rally against Graves in the eighth as an error and walk put two on with no outs. However, a line-drive double play drastically changed the inning and Graves ended the frame with his tenth strikeout over 6.0 innings.
In the bottom of the eighth, Clearwater added a final tally as Saltiban blasted his second home run of the night. Jose Pena followed with a scoreless ninth for the Threshers as they wrapped up a 6-1 win.
Game five of the series against the Threshers is scheduled for Saturday night. Daytona is expected to start RHP Jose Montero (1-2, 1.74) while Clearwater will counter with RHP Jonathan Petit (1-0, 3.68). First pitch from BayCare Ballpark is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. with pregame coverage on the Tortugas Radio network with Brennan Mense begins at 11:45 a.m.
