Sports Lowdown

Phil Bickford For the second straight night , the Brevard County Manatees used a four-run inning to pull ahead and eventually beat the visiting Daytona Tortugas, 5-3. A crowd of 2,530 witnessed the Manatees 40 th  win of the season. Manatees starter  Phil Bickford  gave up a two out, two-run homer to  Aristides Aquino  in the top of the first, but settled down nicely and gave his team 6.1 innings of quality baseball, giving up four hits, three runs (two earned) and walking two. He struck out six, throwing 61 of his 95 pitches for strikes. Brevard County (40-96, 17-51) got one run back in the bottom of the first when leadoff man  Trey York  started things with a triple and came home on a  Mitch Ghelfi  ground out. Daytona starter  Jose Lopez  retired the next two batters, limiting the damage. Daytona threatened a couple times, leaving runners at third in the third and the fifth inning, but each time Bickford go...

Trey York's first Advanced-A hit The Clearwater Threshers helped bolster their playoff position, picking up a doubleheader sweep of the Manatees on Tuesday, ending a marathon night of baseball. The Threshers won game one, 2-1 and completed the sweep with a 3-2 win in game two. Following the suspension of Monday night’s game, in the bottom of the second, the two teams were scheduled to resume play at 5:00 p.m. Tuesday. That didn’t happen, the teams sat through another 2 hour, 50-minute rain delay, before finally being able to pick up the first game, in the bottom of the second inning. Phil Bickford started the first game Monday, getting the first two Threshers out before walking the bases loaded. Jiandido Tromp bailed him out with a foul out to third. The Threshers were able to get on the board, just prior to the suspension Monday, thanks to a single by Carlos Tocci. That was the third single of the inning and gave the Threshers a 1-0 lead. The rain came at that p...

Dustin Houle The Tampa Yankees had a big offensive day on Sunday, knocking around Brevard County Manatees pitching for 15 hits in an 8-2 victory. It was the 15 th  consecutive victory for Tampa this season over the Manatees and they finished the season series with a 16-2 record. The day got off to a tough start for Manatees manager Joe Ayrault in the bottom of the first and was likely a sign of things to come.  With one out,  Thairo Estrada  and  Gleyber Torres  hit back-to-back singles against starter  Kodi Medeiros .  Trey Amburgey  was next to the plate and he checked his swing early in the at bat on a ball in the dirt. Manatees catcher  Mitch Ghelfi  caught it, but both Yankees runners moved up without a throw. Ayrault came out to argue, likely saying that the ball was foul-tipped, which is why there was no throw. He stated his case first to home plate umpire Jose Navas and then to base umpire Reid Joyner. He then ...