Clearwater Takes Down Brevard County in Series Finale

Blake Allemand
Blake Allemand
The Brevard County Manatees suffered their 90th loss of 2016 on Thursday, dropping a 5-2 decision to the Clearwater Threshers at Bright House Field. The Manatees offense managed only four hits, three against Threshers starter Elniery Garcia.
Manatees starter Bubba Derby pitched well for the most part, but ran into trouble in the first inning. 

Zack Coppola walked and Josh Tobias and Carlos Tocci followed with singles, loading the bases. That brought Aaron Brown to the plate and he hit a high-chopper over the head of Mitch Ghelfi at first, scoring two runs. Derby gave up two hits in the second, but got out of the inning, thanks in large part to a double play. 

Meanwhile, his counterpart, Garcia, had not allowed a baserunner through 3.2 innings retiring the first 11 batters he faced. Blake Allemand changed that with one swing of the bat, a solo long ball, making it a 2-1 game, after four.

After the two hits Derby allowed in the second, he went on to retire 11 Threshers in a row, highlighted by a four pitch fourth inning and a six pitch fifth inning. Derby continued to cruise into the sixth, getting the first two outs, before walking Brown.
The walk ended a streak of 13 straight retired and Kyle Martin plated Brown with an RBI double. 

Jiandido Tromp put some distance between the Threshers and Manatees, when he followed the double with a two-run home run, giving the home team a 5-1 lead.

Derby (6-11) pitched better than the final line would indicate, but he was done after six innings of seven hit baseball. He allowed five earned runs, walked two and struck out five. He had a pitch count of 77 with 55 of those being strikes. 
Bubba Derby
Bubba Derby


The Manatees (38-90, 15-45) put another run on the board in the top of the seventh. Allemand led off with a walk and Elvis Rubio popped one up to Martin that was caught in the wind and fell in front of Martin at first. It was (and still is) ruled an error on Martin, which is tough to understand, due to the wind, but according to the radio broadcast, he did touch it, which might have made the official scorer go with an error.

David Denson hit into a double play, moving Allemand to third and he scored on an infield hit by Dustin Houle, making it 5-2. Garcia was done after seven innings. He allowed three hits, two runs (one earned), one walk and seven strikeouts. 

As of the completion of this story, Garcia’s official line shows two earned runs, but with the error on Martin, the Thresher broadcaster correctly pointed out that it should be an unearned run.

There is a chance that the error will be changed to a hit at some point, which would make the official line correct and give Rubio a hit, meaning the Manatees would have five. Either way, the final score will remain.

For more info: Brevard County @ Clearwater boxscore


The Manatees road trip continues Friday against the Tampa Yankees. The two teams will play a rare Friday day game, with first pitch is scheduled for 12:00 p.m. EDT.

This blog is an extension of our website - Sportslowdown.com

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Panthers Rout Tarzans in Home Opener

Image
Sam Daniel (0) led the Panthers with 22 points in Monday's 110-84 victory After opening the season with two losses in the South Regional Tipoff Classic over the weekend, the Florida Tech Men’s Basketball team took their frustrations out on Puerto Rico-Mayaguez on Monday, with a 110-84 home victory. “It always feels good to home to the friendly confines of the Clemente Center,” said FIT head coach Billy Mims. “I knew when we got back here we’d shoot the ball better and we knocked down 14 threes’ and that’s the way we’re supposed to shoot the basketball.” Florida Tech (1-2) allowed five double-digit scorers in both losses in Atlanta. On Monday, they only allowed three and they had five of their own, led by Sam Daniel , who finished with 22, despite having only four in the first half. “The first half they had a box-and-one one me, pretty much had a player chasing me wherever I went,” Sam said. “It was an excellent job by my teammates stepping up to score the ball an...
Read more

FIT Women Fall Short Against Rollins

Image
The Florida Tech Women’s basketball team made a late run at a comeback Wednesday against Rollins, but ultimately the Tars hung on for a 72-67 Sunshine State Conference win. “It comes down to Rollins wanted that game more than we did,” said Panthers head coach John Reynolds. “I’m thinking that and it hurts me to say something like that, but you can’t come out in a conference game and go 3-for-14 on three’s.” Florida Tech (5-2, 1-2 SSC) led 14-11 after one quarter, The Panthers were within a point at 27-26, but a six-point run by Rollins late in the second helped them outscore the Panthers 25-14 in the quarter and go to the locker room with a 36-28 advantage. The visitors were 5-of-13 beyond the arc in that first half, while the Panthers went 0-for-8. Shequana Harris had eight points and three rebounds in the first 20 minutes, to pace the Panthers. “I think she played as hard and as good as she could,” said Reynolds of Harris. Marie Gilbert gave the Tars a 42-33 adv...
Read more

Tars Big Second Half Beats Panthers

Image
Jordan Majors - Photo credit: James Ragan Photography The Florida Tech Men’s basketball team had a tough task Saturday, when they traveled to Rollins. For the first 20 minutes, they looked up for it, as they led the Tars 38-32 at the half. Unfortunately for the Panthers, the home team put the pedal to the medal in the second half, scoring 59 points and winning 91-82 in a Sunshine State Conference game. It was the second straight devastating loss in the conference for the Panthers, who dropped a very controversial home game to Saint Leo on Wednesday. “We must be the best first half team in America,” said Florida Tech head coach Billy Mims, in his post-game interview with Jim Mitchell. “But we can’t play 40 minutes of consistency to save or lives.” The Panthers (11-8, 4-6 SSC) were up 12 against Saint Leo and up six at Rollins at the half, but lost both games. Florida Tech got off to a good start Saturday, with Jordan Majors hitting two quick threes. Things sagged...
Read more