Sports Lowdown

Devin Williams The Brevard County Manatees got their last home series of the season off on the right foot, snapping a seven-game losing streak with a 4-3 win over the Daytona Tortugas on Friday. Starting pitcher Devin Williams was impressive for Brevard County, throwing 5.2 innings and picking up his first Advanced-A win. “He’s got good stuff and the way he carries himself, really showed me something,” said Manatees manager Joe Ayrault.  “He’s very confident.” The one inning that Williams ran into trouble was the second. He hit Aristides Aquino and then gave up back-to-back singles to Juan Duran and Reydel Medina, loading the bases. He then proceeded to walk Blake Butler, giving the visitors a 1-0 lead. He bounced back to get Chad Tromp to ground into a run-scoring double play and the final run came home on an error by Mitch Ghelfi at first base, giving Daytona a three-spot. The Manatees (16-51, 39-96) did all their scoring in the bottom of the third, against Da...

Devin Williams The Clearwater Threshers did all their damage in the fourth inning on Tuesday, en route to a 3-0 win over the Brevard County Manatees in the opener of a three-game series at Bright House Field. Each team had just four hits in the game, but Clearwater made theirs count, against Manatees reliever Devin Williams. Williams was the scheduled starter, but Kodi Medeiros got the call and pitched two innings of no-hit baseball, walking one and striking out two. He threw 16 of his 29 pitches for strikes. Two of the four Manatees hits came in the third inning on back-to-back singles by Mitch Ghelfi and Blake Allemand against Threshers starter Brandon Leibrandt. Williams (0-2) came in and retired the side in order in the third, but Clearwater got to him in the fourth. Carlos Tocci led off with a single and went to second on a wild pitch. Chace Numata grounded out, moving him to third and he rode home on a single by Josh Tobias. That was an especially difficult hit...

Corey Ray The Lakeland Flying Tigers completed a series sweep on Thursday, beating the Brevard County Manatees 7-4 in front of 1,162 at Space Coast Stadium. This was the final game between these two teams in 2016, with Lakeland winning the season series 14-4. The Manatees (14-40, 37-85) got on the board first when Corey Ray led off the bottom of the first with a double and came home on an Elvis Rubio double. Rubio came home thanks to two wild pitches by Flying Tigers starter Spencer Turnbull. Lakeland tied it in the top of the second against Manatees starter Devin Williams. Anthony Pereira had an RBI double and Rashad Brown hit a ball that dropped into short left field, with three Manatees in pursuit. That scored Pereira with the tying run. The Manatees regained the lead in the bottom of the third on an RBI double by David Denson. It was Denson’s first RBI since his debut with Brevard County 14 games ago. That lead was short-lived, as Lakeland picked up two more runs...

Blake Allemand Phil Bickford  was impressive in his second start of the season for the Manatees on Saturday, striking out 10 Dunedin Blue Jays in five innings of work. Unfortunately, he did not factor into the decision, a 4-3 victory in 10 innings for Dunedin. Despite Bickford’s performance, Dunedin opened the scoring in the bottom of the first.  Dickie Joe Thon  singled and went to second on a wild pitch. He stole third, as  J.D. Davis  was striking out.  Ryan McBroom , who would be heard from again later, knocked Thon home with a single. Bickford ended up striking out the side in the inning and went on to strike out two in the second inning and two more in the third. He added one more in the fourth and two in the fifth. The Manatees offense rewarded him with two runs in the top of the sixth, against Dunedin starter  Luis Santos . Fidel Pena  singled with one out and rode home on a  Blake Allemand ...