Threshers\u2019 bullpen dominates again as Clearwater defeats Fort Myers in finale<\/p>\n
CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2013\u00a0The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels were defeated by the Clearwater Threshers by a final score of 6-2 Sunday afternoon at BayCare Ballpark.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers (45-34, 8-6) sent\u00a0Justin Mitrovich\u00a0(1-3) to the mound to make his 10th start of the season. The Threshers (48-33, 8-7) loaded the bases out on an infield single, a walk and a hit-by-pitch. Matthew Ferrara hit a bases-clearing double to put Clearwater on top 3-0.<\/p>\n
It marked the fourth consecutive game the Mussels have allowed at least one run in the first inning against the Threshers.<\/p>\n
Juan Villavicencio added an RBI double against Mitrovich in the bottom of the second to extend Clearwater\u2019s lead to four.<\/p>\n
Ryan Sprock\u00a0doubled in the top of the third inning to extend the Mussels\u2019 extra-base hit streak to 31 consecutive games. The Mussels\u2019 era record is 32, set in 2024 from late-July to September.<\/p>\n
In the top of the fourth inning,\u00a0Irvin Nunez\u00a0connected on his third home run of the year to put Fort Myers on the scoreboard 4-1.<\/p>\n
An inning later, facing James Tallon (2-1),\u00a0Murphy Hernandez\u00a0recorded an RBI groundout to score\u00a0Byron Chourio\u00a0to cut the deficit to two.<\/p>\n
Kolten Smith\u00a0relieved Mitrovich in the bottom of the fifth. Smith allowed one-out doubles in both the fifth and sixth innings, but maneuvered scoreless frames in each.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Stevens\u00a0took over for Smith in the seventh. Following an error by\u00a0Ramiro Dominguez\u00a0that would have ended the inning, Will Vierling hit a two-run home run to put the Threshers\u2019 lead back to four runs, 6-2.<\/p>\n
The score held that way, and Fort Myers dropped four of the final five games of the series.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clearwater is the only team in the Florida State League West Division to have a winning record against Fort Myers this season (6-3 vs. FTM). The teams will meet 12 more times; at Hammond Stadium in August and again at BayCare Ballpark in early September.<\/p>\n
The Mussels return home today, July 7 for the start of a nine-game home stand. First pitch against the Bradenton Marauders is set for 7:05 p.m. with coverage beginning at 6:40 p.m. on the Mighty Mussels Baseball Network.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mussels fall to Threshers on Independence Day, 7-3<\/p>\n
CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2013\u00a0The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels were defeated by the Clearwater Threshers by a final score of 7-3 on Independence Day at BayCare Ballpark.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers (45-33, 8-5) sent\u00a0Hendry Chivilli\u00a0to the mound to make his third start and fifth appearance of the season with the Mussels. Chivilli gave up a two-run home run to Alirio Ferrebus with two outs in the first inning to give Clearwater (46-33, 7-6) the early lead.<\/p>\n
In the top of the second inning,\u00a0Jayson Bass\u00a0led off the inning with a double against Sean Youngerman (2-4). With two out and two in scoring position,\u00a0Byron Chourio\u00a0hooked a two-run single down the right-field line to tie the game up.<\/p>\n
Bass\u2019 double marked the 30th consecutive game with an extra-base hit for Fort Myers, the longest active streak in the Florida State League and the second longest streak in the league this year. Dunedin had 35 consecutive games with an extra-base hit across May and June.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With two out and a runner at third in the bottom of the second, Minnesota Twins No. 12 prospect\u00a0Quentin Young\u00a0leaped up to make a great snag to preserve the tie score.<\/p>\n
Ryan Sprock\u00a0smoked a 102.2 mph double to leadoff the top of the third inning. At third with one out,\u00a0JP Smith II\u00a0drove him in to give Fort Myers their first lead.<\/p>\n
Clearwater tied the game in the bottom half with a run-scoring fielder\u2019s choice by Nathan Humphreys.<\/p>\n
Humphreys later ripped a go-ahead single to score Griffin Burkholder in the bottom of the fifth against Mussels\u2019 reliever\u00a0Callan Fang\u00a0(3-1).<\/p>\n
In the bottom of the eighth, Clearwater got three insurance runs against\u00a0Dylan Questad. A two-run double by Will Vierling and an RBI double by Nolan Beltran made the score 7-3 Threshers.<\/p>\n
Sprock, Chourio fomer as Mighty Mussels defeat Threshers, 4-3<\/p>\n
CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2013\u00a0The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels defeated the Clearwater Threshers by a final score of 4-3 Friday night at BayCare Ballpark.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers\u2019 (45-32, 8-4) pitching walked the tight rope on the night. The Mussels stranded 12 Threshers (46-33, 6-7) on the bases and seven runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n
In the top of the first inning, the Mussels rallied to strike first against High-A rehabber Ryan Degges (0-1). After\u00a0Jayson Bass\u00a0walked and\u00a0Luis Fragoza\u00a0singled,\u00a0Byron Chourio\u00a0crushed a three-run shot off the right-field foul pole to give Fort Myers a 3-0 lead. It is the first time the Mussels have scored first in the series.<\/p>\n
Fort Myers\u2019 starter\u00a0Reed Moring\u00a0made his first appearance since June 5 after missing nearly a month with an injury. Nathan Humphreys hit a two-run home run with one-out in the first inning to cut the Mussels\u2019 lead to 3-2.<\/p>\n
Leading off the third,\u00a0Ryan Sprock\u00a0greeted new Clearwater arm Grant Holman with a line-drive home run into the visitor\u2019s bullpen. Sprock\u2019s fifth of the year made the score 4-2 Fort Myers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That home run was number 82 on the season for the Mussels, surpassing their total of 81 from 2025. The 2026 team accomplished this feat in 48 fewer games, with last year\u2019s club not bashing number 81 until September.<\/p>\n
Moring exited after three innings of work. He allowed two runs on five hits and struck out two without issuing a walk. The righty threw 31 of his 41 pitches for strikes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Merit Jones\u00a0(3-1) took over in the fourth. He issued two walks to begin the frame but then retired the next three hitters to escape the jam.<\/p>\n
Jones allowed runners in scoring position with less than two outs in each of the next two innings, but held both times to keep the lead at two runs.<\/p>\n
In the top of the seventh inning,\u00a0Ricardo Pena\u00a0doubled with one out. Two batters later, Sprock singled sharply to Threshers\u2019 center fielder Griffin Burkholder, who threw out Nunez at the plate.<\/p>\n
Burkholder led off the bottom of the seventh inning with an inside-the-park home run on a line drive down the right field line.<\/p>\n
Jones later loaded the bases on a single and a pair of walks with two outs.\u00a0Michael Hilker Jr.\u00a0(S3) came on in relief and induced an inning-ending groundout to preserve the lead.<\/p>\n
Hilker also worked around a two-out single in the eighth inning.<\/p>\n
Harry Genth\u00a0was hit by a pitch in the top of the ninth inning and had to exit the game. Genth\u2019s 21st hit-by-pitch leads all of Minor League Baseball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Threshers\u2019 bullpen dominates again as Clearwater defeats Fort Myers in finale CLEARWATER, Fla. \u2013\u00a0The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-331967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}