Clearwater Threshers Flip the Fifth, Beat Blue Jays 7-5 in a Wild Home Win

Clearwater brings the bats, Dunedin brings the headache

The Clearwater Threshers beat the Dunedin Blue Jays 7-5 on Wednesday night, which sounds fairly tidy until you look under the hood. This one had a lead change, a five-run eruption and Owen Carapellotti doing his best to make Clearwater regret pitching to him.

The Threshers finished with 10 hits and no home runs. Apparently, you can win a neighborhood argument without launching anything over the fence. You just have to keep making the other side answer.

For Pinellas fans watching in Clearwater, following along from St Pete or the beaches, or talking baseball around a tailgate before heading inside, this was the good stuff: nearby rivals and a result that stayed uncomfortable longer than the home crowd would have preferred. Dunedin fans had plenty to cheer about. They just didn't get the last word.

The fifth inning picked a side

Clearwater got moving in the bottom of the first when Jonathan Hogart singled home Will Gasparino for a 1-0 lead. Carapellotti answered with a homer in the second, tying it at 1-1 and introducing himself as the evening's recurring problem.

Dunedin moved ahead in the fifth. Enmanuel Bonilla scored on a force out, and Blaine Bullard's sacrifice fly brought home Raimundo De Los Santos. Blue Jays up, 3-1. A perfectly reasonable time for the visitors to start enjoying themselves.

That lasted until Clearwater came back to bat.

With the bases loaded, Caden Bogenpohl ripped a two-run double that scored Reece Moroney and Jack Hopko. Tie game. Tyler Spangler then scored on a throwing error, because sometimes the opposition contributes to your rally whether it wants to or not.

Macon Winslow supplied the next big swing, singling home Bogenpohl and Matthew Ferrara. The Threshers had turned a 3-1 deficit into a 6-3 lead with five runs in the inning. No long ball, no need for one. Clearwater found the gaps, took the opening and kept collecting.

Calling that a knockout would be generous, though. Carapellotti hit his second homer in the sixth, and Dunedin cut the margin to 6-5. The Threshers still had work to do. They added an insurance run and held on for the 7-5 finish.

Give the rally its proper credit

Bogenpohl gets the headliner treatment, and rightly so. His fifth-inning double erased Dunedin's lead and gave Clearwater's rally its defining hit. Winslow deserves room on that bar stool, too: his two-run single put some badly needed distance between the teams.

Carapellotti made sure that distance mattered. His two homers were the loudest part of Dunedin's night, but Clearwater's broader attack carried the result. That's the story here—not a sweeping declaration about destiny, just a home win earned by doing enough damage when the opportunity arrived.

The Threshers continue their homestand. Check the team schedule for upcoming games, or revisit the full game log.

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