The following is a recap of Tuesday's Mighty Mussels game as provided to Fox 4 by the organization's press office.
The Mighty Mussels used two home runs and a brilliant pitching performance from Sawyer Gipson-Long to power past the Clearwater Threshers 7-1 at BayCare Ballpark Tuesday.
Gipson-Long (5-4) spun a career-high seven innings, striking out eight while allowing just one unearned run on three hits. The Georgia native has worked to 2.78 ERA over his last ten starts.
Fort Myers (40-33) used a barrage of hits against Clearwater (35-37) starter Fernando Lozano (3-2) to jump in front early. After an error and a Jeferson Morales single, Will Holland clobbered a three-run home run to deep left to give the Mussels a 3-0 lead.
Still up by that margin in the top of the second, Nick Anderson reached on an infield single before Justin Washington walked. The next batter was Ruben Santana, who pulled a single down the right field line to score Anderson and make it 4-0. Misael Urbina then plated Washington on a sacrifice fly to right to extend the advantage to 5-0. With two outs and nobody on, Keoni Cavaco crushed a solo home run to left to cap the inning at 6-0 Fort Myers.
With Gipson-Long cruising on the other side, Fort Myers got a leadoff double from Santana to start the fourth. Urbina followed with a single to center to move Santana to third. Cavaco then grounded out to first. After the out, Threshers first baseman Rixon Wingrove threw to second – allowing Santana to score from third and make it 7-0.
The Threshers plated their only run in the sixth on back-to-back singles and a Mussels fielding error. Lefty Aaron Rozek covered the final two innings to close out the 7-1 victory.
Fort Myers will turn to Brent Headrick (3-4, 3.44) at 12 p.m. on Wednesday, opposed by LHP Samuel Aldegheri (0-0, 0.00) of Clearwater. Coverage begins at 11:45 a.m. on the Mighty Mussels Baseball Network.
