St. Lucie 4 - Bradenton 3

Eudy Pina has been swinging a red hot bat during the month of June, but no hit was as big as the one he launched on Saturday.

Pina lined a walkoff home run just inside the left field foul pole to lift the St. Lucie Mets to a thrilling 4-3 win over the Bradenton Marauders at Tradition Field.

Pina’s rocket over the wall came on a 3-2 pitch from Robby Rowland to lead off the inning. The Marauders immediately protested the homer, arguing that it hooked foul. Home plate umpire Adam MacKay stuck with his original call of a fair ball.

The last three games between the Mets (45-32, 5-3) and Marauders (41-37, 6-3) at Tradition Field have all been decided by one run. Friday’s game certainly had the feel that it would be another close one.

The Mets took a 1-0 lead in the first on Aderlin Rodriguez’s two out RBI single that scored Jairo Perez.

Bradenton answered right back in the second when Jordan Steranka led off with a solo homer against Gabriel Ynoa.

That would be the only run scored by the Marauders against Ynoa. The Mets right-hander cruised through seven innings. He allowed seven hits, did not walk a batter and struck out five. He threw 98 pitches.

The Mets had two great chances to blow the game open but couldn’t come up with a big hit. They loaded the bases against John Kuchno in the sixth but only scored one run when Maikis De La Cruz grounded into a double play.

With runners at second and third and no outs in the seventh, Ryan Hafner threw a wild pitch that allowed Gilbert Gomez to score and put the Mets up 3-1. L.J. Mazzilli advanced to third but was stranded after two strikeouts and a fly out.

Ynoa was in line for his ninth win of the season and his sixth win in his last six starts. However, the Mets couldn’t hold the lead. Josh Bell doubled home Max Moroff in the eighth and later scored on a ground out to tie the game 3-3.

T.J. Chism took over for Robert Coles with runners on first and second in the eighth and induced an inning-ending double play ball.

Paul Sewald pitched a scoreless ninth and was credited with the win after Pina hit his heroic homer in the bottom half.

Pina entered the game hitting .377 with five homers in the month of June. - team press release