FSL1 Clearwater Threshers

Clearwater Clips Cardinals 5-4 Wednesday

Published on May 8, 2013 under Florida State League (FSL1)
Clearwater Threshers News Release


JUPITER (May 8, 2013) - The Clearwater Threshers polished off a four-game sweep of the Palm Beach Cardinals with a 5-4 win Wednesday night in front of 1,427 fans at Roger Dean Stadium.

The Threshers (17-15) took the lead early on and never looked back, running off their fourth consecutive victory against the Cardinals (15-18). The loss by the Dunedin Blue Jays allowed the Threshers to creep within three games of the lead for the Florida State League's North Division.

Clearwater opened the scoring with a big first inning against Palm Beach starter Travis Miller (0-5). Second baseman Carlos Alonso led off with a single through the left side, and Miller hit right fielder Kelly Dugan with a pitch to put runners on first and second with no outs. Left fielder Aaron Altherr hammered a double up the left field line, scoring Alonso and moving Dugan to third base. First baseman Chris Serritella lofted a towering fly to center for the first out, with Dugan scoring and Altherr advancing to third on the sacrifice fly. Right fielder Cameron Perkins sliced a ball past Danny Stienstra at third base for a double, scoring Altherr and making it 3-0 Threshers.

Palm Beach drew a little closer in the bottom of the second against Threshers starter Perci Garner (3-0). Jonathan Rodriguez led off the frame with a double up the left field line, and came home on a infield single by Stienstra when Serritella couldn't handle the throw to first base. The Threshers exited the second inning with a 3-1 lead.

The Cardinals added another run in the bottom of the fifth. Stienstra drew a leadoff walk from Garner, and hustled to third on a double up the left field line by Anthony Garcia. Juan Castillo hit a ground-out to shortstop Jose Mojica, allowing Stienstra to score and make it a 3-2 ballgame.

Clearwater tacked on a couple of insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning against reliever Dean Kiekhefer. Alonso cracked a one-out double up the first-base line, and Dugan followed with his own double off the left-field wall to plate Alonso. Altherr then lined a single up the middle, and Dugan sped around to score, running the Clearwater lead to 5-2.

Palm Beach crept closer in the bottom of the eighth inning. Matt Williams led off with a single against Garner, and Ronny Gil followed with a walk to put runners on first and second with no outs. Luis Garcia came in from the pen to replace Garner, and induced a grounder to Mojica at short by Nick Longmire. Serritella couldn't handle the throw, though, and the error allowed Longmire to reach safely while Gil reached third and Williams scored. After Colin Walsh popped out to Mojica, Piscotty hit a grounder to third. Longmire was forced out at second, but Piscotty made it to first, with Gil scoring on the play to make it a 5-4 ballgame. That would be as close as Palm Beach would come, though, as Garcia set down the next four hitters for the save.

Garner earned the victory with seven solid innings, allowing four runs (two earned) on seven hits and three walks; he fanned six. Garcia picked up his third save with two spotless innings, although he did allow two inherited runners to score.

Miller was tagged with the loss, having surrendered three runs on four hits and two walks over five innings while striking out one. Kiekhefer gave up two runs on three hits against two strikeouts in a pair of relief innings. Ronnie Shaban allowed just one hit and whiffed three in two innings out of the bullpen.

Clearwater will seek their fifth straight win when they return home to Bright House Field on Thursday against the Lakeland Flying Tigers. Clearwater lefty Ethan Stewart will start against Tigers righty Wilsen Palacios. It's Thirsty Thursday at Bright House Field, with all drinks two-for one! Gates open at 6 p.m., with first pitch scheduled for 7 p.m. Ben Gellman's pregame show begins at 6:45 p.m. on ThreshersBaseball.com.

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Florida State League Stories from May 8, 2013


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