5/17/14

St. Lucie 6 - Lakeland 4



Luis Cessa turned in his third straight gem of a start and the St. Lucie Mets hung on to defeat the Lakeland Flying Tigers 6-4 on Friday at Joker Marchant Stadium.

A week after tossing eight innings and allowing one run in a victory over Palm Beach, Cessa was in cruise control again against the Flying Tigers. He limited Lakeland to four hits, including one solo home run, in six innings to earn his third straight win.

Cessa struck out three and did not walk a batter. In his last three outings, he has given up just three runs in 19 innings while striking out 11 and walking two.

The Mets spotted Cessa a 5-0 lead. Cam Maron led off the second with a solo home run and Gilbert Gomez followed with a double. Eudy Pina beat out a double play ball later in the inning to score Gomez from third to make it 2-0.

Brandon Nimmo tripled for the second straight game in the third inning and came home on T.J. Rivera’s RBI ground out. Rivera now leads the Florida State League with 34 RBIs.

In the fifth, Phillip Evans and Cole Frenzel hit back-to-back RBI sac flies to plate Maron and Gomez to increase the Mets’ lead to 5-0.

James Robbins got the Flying Tigers on the board with a solo homer against Cessa in the fifth. Jairo Perez got the run back for the Mets in the eighth with his fifth homer of the year to make it 6-2.

Ryan Fraser retired the side in order in the bottom of the eighth and got the first batter out in the ninth, but the Flying Tigers wouldn’t go quietly.

Evans committed a throwing error that would have been the second out of the ninth. Instead, the Tyler Hanover reached and the Flying Tigers laced four consecutive singles, the last by Jared Reaves scoring two runs and making it 6-4.

With the tying run on first and one out, Fraser buckled down to strike out both Dixon Machado and Chad Wright looking to end the game.

Tanner Bailey took the loss for Lakeland.

Gomez went 3 for 4 with two doubles. Maron and Dilson Herrera had two hits apiece.

In a MLB rehab appearance for New York, Gonzalez Germen pitched a scoreless seventh. He gave up a single but started an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play.

The win snapped the Mets’ three-game losing streak. - team press release 

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