Wingrove Homers As Mussels Top Threshers 6-1
CLEARWATER, Fla. (July 19, 2024) – Ricky Castro struck out seven batters and Rixon Wingrove homered against his former team as the Mighty Mussels defeated the Clearwater Threshers 6-1 on Friday night at Baycare Ballpark. Castro (4-2) threw five shutout innings while allowing just one base hit, going two batters
CLEARWATER, Fla. (July 19, 2024) – Ricky Castro struck out seven batters and Rixon Wingrove homered against his former team as the Mighty Mussels defeated the Clearwater Threshers 6-1 on Friday night at Baycare Ballpark.
Castro (4-2) threw five shutout innings while allowing just one base hit, going two batters over the minimum. He struck out the side in the first and filled up the strike zone all evening, throwing 49 of his 64 pitches for strikes. With the win, Fort Myers (44-41, 13-7) extended its second half lead in the FSL West to 1.5 games over the Dunedin Blue Jays.
In the fourth inning of a scoreless game, Daniel Pena singled through the right side of the infield to put the leadoff man aboard. Threshers’ (50-38, 7-15) reliever Chase Hopewell (0-3) retired the next two batters before allowing an infield single to Maddux Houghton to set up first and third. The next batter was Nick Lucky, who laced an opposite field double into the left-center gap to put the Mussels ahead 2-0.
Still leading by that score in the sixth, Wingrove blasted a 106 mph shot over the wall in left-center for his fifth homer of the season, extending the lead to 3-0.
In the eighth, Poncho Ruiz worked a leadoff walk by winning a challenge on a 3-2 pitch from Brandon Beckel. Pena then turned on the first pitch from Beckel for a booming double to the wall in left to make it 4-0.
The Threshers responded in the bottom of the frame, as Raylin Heredia scored on a groundout from Diego Gonzalez to make it 4-1.
In the top of the ninth, Lucky and Yohander Martinez each worked a walk to start the inning. Gonzalez then committed an error to allow Lucky to score. Two batters later, Ruiz connected on an RBI groundout to make it 6-1.
Castro, Paulshawn Pasqualotto, Jack Noble, and Xander Hamilton combined to strike out 12 batters while issuing just one walk and holding Clearwater to 0-for-10 with RISP.
The Mussels return to action on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. Coverage begins at 6:15 p.m. on the Mighty Mussels Baseball Network.