FSL: Tampa And Clearwater Both Win, Remain Tied For North Division Lead

The Tampa Yankees ended the first month of the 2017 Florida State League season at 10-14. Then after May they turned their season around finishing 17-12. On June 14th, the Yankees won their third straight game and pulled into a first place tie with the Clearwater Threshers in the North Division, with an opportunity to win the First Half Title.

The Threshers ended their first month of the season at 16-7, but finished the month of May 14-17, and a 7-7 June so far has allowed the Yankees to creep back into the hunt for the division lead.

On Thursday night both teams were in action looking for that one game edge to take over the division lead.

The Yankees took on the defending league champs, the Bradenton Marauders and after getting behind 1-0 after the first inning, Tampa scored the tying run in the top of the second on an RBI double from Tom Lynch.

In the top of the seventh, the Yankees broke the 1-1 deadlock on Lynch’s two run shot, sending Tampa to their fourth straight victory, while also hurting the Marauders chances of gaining ground on first place Palm Beach Cardinals, who lost 5-2 to the Dunedin Blue Jays. The Cardinals lead the second place Marauders by 2.5 games in the South Division.

As for the Threshers, they entered their 4-game series against the Lakeland Flying Tigers having loss two of the first three games, looking for a split in the series.

The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the sixth when the Threshers broke through for five runs highlighted by a two RBI triple from Emmanuel Marrero and RBI singles off the bats of Mark Laird, Wilson Garcia and Cornelius Randolph.

Both teams scored a run in their half of the eighth inning, with a home run from Lakeland’s Zac Shepherd and an RBI single from Damek Tomscha. The Flying Tigers added a run in the top of the ninth, but came up short as the Threshers earned a much-needed 6-2 victory to remain tied with the Yankees for first place.

Both teams will be off for the Florida State League All Star game this upcoming weekend, and get back in action on Monday seeking a first half crown. If both teams end up in a tie, then the Threshers would win the division since they own the head-to-head tiebreaker.

David Conde

David is the Co-Founder and Executive Editor of Legends On Deck®, as well as a Co-Host on Legends On Deck Podcast. David was a Senior Editor for MetsMerizedOnline.com, MetsMinors.net and Contributor for Hardballchat.com that spanned from 2010 to 2014. David made his MLB Debut as a writer in June 2014, while covering the NY Mets at Citi Field, for MetsmerizedOnline.com. David also coaches baseball for ages 13-15, a Babe Ruth League team in his local community. David's passion is coaching the game he loves to the future Legends of Tomorrow as well as making available a website that people can have fun sharing and reading. David is also passionate about his career as a Mortgage Loan Officer which allows him to help many families reach their dreams of owning a home. Connect with David via his Social Media pages as he loves to chat all about baseball.