FORT MYERS, Fla. (August 14, 2026) - The Fort Myers Mighty Mussels were defeated by the Clearwater Threshers 12-10 on Friday night at Lee Health Sports Complex.
The Mighty Mussels stole nine bases tonight, one off of the franchise record of 10, set on June 25, 2025 in Tampa. Fort Myers leads the Florida State League with 249 steals, 10 better than the second-highest mark.
Merphy Hernandez swiped four bases, becoming the eighth player in franchise history to steal that many in a single game. He reached the feat for the second time this year after having four steals on May 28 (G2) vs Jupiter. Hernandez has 39 steals on the season, trailing only Jupiter’s Andres Valor (50) for first in the FSL.
Fort Myers (61-49, 24-21) sent Cristian Hernandez to the mound to make his Hammond Stadium debut. Clearwater (63-46, 24-20) struck first with a run in the top of the first inning.
Hernandez allowed two more runs in the second before exiting the game. Brent Francisco (8-3) replaced him and stranded two, but the Threshers took a 3-0 lead.
Fort Myers fought back to tie the game in the bottom of the second inning. Hernandez reached on an infield single, Charlie Scholvin walked and Hideki Prather was hit by a pitch to load up the bases with one out. Yovanny Duran drove in Hernandez with a sacrifice fly to put the Mussels on the board.
The next batter was Vahn Lackey, who narrowly missed his first professional home run on a rocket to straight-away center field. The ball hit off the wall, just to the right of the 405-foot marker, and scored two runs, as Lackey dove in with his second triple of the season. The ball left the bat at 107.6 mph, his hardest hit as a professional.
After Clearwater retook the lead in the top of the third, the Mussels tied the game in the bottom of the inning. Luis Fragoza drew his second walk of the night, then scored on an RBI triple from Isaiah Lane, already his third of his professional career.
The Threshers scored one in the top of the fourth, but the big damage came an inning later. Francisco and Brad Rudis gave up a combined seven runs in the fifth as Clearwater took a 12-4 advantage.
During that inning, Phillies second rounder Caden Bogenpohl hit a three-run home run at 117.1 mph, the hardest hit ball in the Statcast era (since 2015) for the Clearwater Threshers and the second-hardest vs. Fort Myers (Tony Blanco Jr., 2021). It is the fifth hardest hit ball in affiliated baseball, the third hardest hit ball in MiLB in 2026 and the fourth-hardest hit ball in the FSL’s Statcast era.
Bogenpohl later had a 116.6 mph single. He has the second- and third-hardest hit balls in the FSL this season (Randy Guzman, 117.6 mph).
The Mussels grabbed two runs back in the bottom of the sixth. Run-scoring singles from Colby Turner and Hernandez cut into the deficit, making the score 12-6.
Adam Falinski took over in the top of the seventh and held Clearwater off the board over the final three innings.
The Mussels continued to claw back in the seventh. Lane, Hernandez, and Scholvin all recorded hits to lead off the inning. Prather drove in his first professional run and Duran added an RBI to make it 12-9.
Hernandez drove in a run against Manuel Colon (1-0) in the eighth to cut the deficit to two, but Fort Myers left the bases loaded.
In the ninth inning, despite a lead off single from Duran, the Mussels could not complete the comeback against Luis Avila (S2) and saw their five-game winning streak snapped.
The contest took 3 hours and 26 minutes to complete, marking the longest home game of the season. Including a 66-minute weather delay, the game took 4 hours and 32 minutes to complete, wrapping at 11:37 p.m. for the third latest finish all season.
UP NEXT: The series continues on Saturday, August 15. Ramiro Villanueva (4.96) starts for the Mussels, opposite Matthew Fisher (3.54). First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. with coverage beginning at 5:40 p.m. on the Mighty Mussels Baseball Network.