Big first inning sends Threshers past Mussels, 6-4
FORT MYERS — The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels fell 6-4 to the Clearwater Threshers Wednesday night at Hammond Stadium.
With the victory, Clearwater (56-47, 20-17) took a 2-0 advantage in the series and pushed their lead in the FSL West standings to 2.5 games over the Mussels (45-56, 18-20).
The Mussels’ offense saw six players record multiple hits in the game, highlighted by a three-hit day for JP Smith II, who fell a homer shy of the cycle. However, Fort Myers left 13 men aboard and stranded runners in seven different innings.
Clearwater stormed ahead to a 4-0 lead in the first. The Threshers sent nine men to the plate against Jason Doktorczyk (3-6) and scored three of their four runs with two outs in the frame. Dante Nori led off the game with a triple for the second straight night before rehabber Christian Arroyo opened the scoring with a single up the middle.
After a pair of outs from Doktorczyk, Jonathan Hogart singled off of the second base bag to extend the lead 2-0. Bloop singles to shallow right from both Luke Davis and Robert Phelps pushed the margin to 4-0.
Clearwater tacked on another run in the second inning on an RBI single from Luke Humphreys, which extended the lead to 5-0.
Fort Myers responded with a trio of runs in the bottom of the frame. Peyton Carr led off the inning with a single, and he was driven in on an RBI double by Smith to cut the deficit to 5-1.
Bryan Acuna then drew a walk before Luis Hernandez singled to left field to load the bases. Later in the inning, Marek Houston drove in Smith with an infield single to make it 5-2 Threshers.
The final run of the frame scored on a sacrifice fly by Dameury Pena, bringing the advantage to 5-3 Clearwater after two innings.
The Mussels cut the deficit to 5-4 in the bottom of the third, after Smith tripled and later scored on a single by Acuna.
Despite the lengthy start to his outing, Doktorczyk threw 5.1 innings. He retired six of the final seven batters he faced with four strikeouts in that stretch. Doktorczyk’s 91 pitches were the most thrown by a Mussels’ pitcher this year.
In the sixth, Houston singled to center to record his third multi-hit game throughout the first five games of his pro career.
With two outs in the top of the seventh, Will Vierling delivered a broken bat single to extend the Thresher lead 6-2.
Dylan Questad was the first man out of the Mussels’ bullpen. He went 1.2 innings and allowed one run on three hits.
Zander Schrist entered with a runner at first and not outs in the eighth. The lefty went six up and six down, extending his scoreless streak to 14 innings across his last eight appearances.
Game three of the Mussels series against the Threshers at Hammond Stadium will be played today, with Michael Ross (4-4, 2.93) on the mound for Fort Myers. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m., with coverage beginning at 6:45 p.m. on the Mighty Mussels Baseball Network.