Castillo’s Homer Not Enough as Threshers Drop Series Finale

WP: Alessandro Ercolani (4-4, 3.88)

LP: Oswald Medina (0-1, 6.75)

SV: Ryan Harbin (3)

BOX SCORE:

BRADENTON, FL – Chad Castillo hit his fifth homer of the year and the Clearwater Threshers (50-24, 6-3) had the tying run at the plate in the ninth, but fell 5-2 against the Bradenton Marauders (40-34, 5-4) on Monday night at LECOM Park. The Threshers return home for a six-game series against the Palm Beach Cardinals on Tuesday night.

Termarr Johnson opened the scoring for the Marauders with a bases-loaded triple to put Bradenton up 3-0 in the third inning. Emaarion Boyd responded with a double off Bradenton’s starter Alessandro Ercolani to lead off the fourth. Justin Crawford drove him home with a single to left to make it 3-1 but was thrown out at second trying to stretch the RBI hit into a double.

Chad Castillo led off the fifth inning with a solo home run that cut the Marauders lead in half to 3-2. Bradenton got the run back in the bottom half of the frame on a bases-loaded wild pitch that made it 4-2. The Marauders scored another run on a groundout in the eighth to bring the lead back to three. The Threshers had the tying run at the plate in the ninth but couldn’t even the score as they dropped the series finale 5-2.

Oswald Medina (0-1) allowed three runs on five hits in 4.0 innings, allowing two walks and striking out three in the loss. Danny Wilkinson allowed one run on two hits with two walks and five strikeouts in 2.0 innings of work. Daniel Harper allowed one run on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts. Konnor Ash retired the only batter he faced in the eighth.

Clearwater finishes the season series against Bradenton with an 11-4 record...Castillo has hit two of his five home runs at LECOM Park...Three of his five home runs have been against Bradenton this season...Crawford recorded his second multi-hit game of the series...he extended his on-base streak to 18 straight games...The Threshers return home to begin a six-game series against the Palm Beach Cardinals on Tuesday, July 4th... First pitch is at 6:30 pm EST... You can purchase tickets for Threshers games at ThreshersBaseball.com/tickets or by calling 727-467-4457.