BRADENTON, FL (Bradenton Marauders) – Four Marauders pitchers combined on a no-hitter Thursday night at LECOM Park—the second nine-inning no-hitter in team history—in Bradenton’s 3-0 win over the Clearwater Threshers.
A rehabbing Quinn Priester tossed the first three innings for the Marauders (24-30), retiring nine of ten batters faced. Anthony Solometo (1-0) pitched four innings out of the bullpen, striking out three, and Jake Sweeney and Yunior Thibo pitched one scoreless inning each in the eighth and ninth, respectively.
Rehabbing catcher, Henry Davis, caught all night innings for the Marauders and went 1-for-2 with a double, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch.
The Threshers (28-25) managed just five baserunners in the game. Priester’s lone baserunner in his rehab start came when he hit Leandro Pineda with a pitch in the second, left-hander Solometo walked two en route to retiring 12 of 14 faced in his four innings, and Sweeney and Thibo walked one man each.
After Phillies major-league rehabbers Kent Emanuel and Ryan Sherriff combined to pitch four scoreless innings to begin the night for Clearwater, Bradenton plated all three of their runs in the fifth inning off left-hander Rafael Marcano (0-2). Wyatt Hendrie led off the inning by reaching first base on a throwing error by third baseman Nicolas Torres, Brenden Dixon followed with a walk, and both scored on a triple into the right-field corner by Norkis Marcos. Marcos then broke for home plate on a straight steal and appeared to beat the catcher’s tag as the pitch arrived, but plate umpire Austin Snow called a balk on Marcano, enabling the run to score anyway.
Defensively, several Marauders players handled difficult plays to make the no-hitter possible. Second baseman Mike Jarvis opened the game with a backhanded stop of a Wendell Rijo grounder and made an on-target jump throw to first base, then would go on to record the game’s final out on a sliding catch of a soft blooper behind the mound by Pineda. Sergio Campana made two diving catches in center field, including a full-extension grab that robbed Arturo de Freitas of a bloop single to end the seventh, Solometo’s final inning.
The Marauders went just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, leaving at least one man stranded in scoring position in three separate innings. But Marcos’ offense proved sufficient as Bradenton’s pitching pinned Clearwater down, stranding three Threshers baserunners in scoring position throughout the game.
The series continues Friday with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at LECOM Park. RHP Po-Yu Chen (1-4, 5.17 ERA) will start for the Marauders against Clearwater LHP Jordi Martinez (1-2, 3.96 ERA).