St. Lucie Loses Fourth In A Row

The Lakeland Flying Tigers scored nine unanswered runs to cruise past the St. Lucie Mets 9-3 on Friday at Tradition Field.

It was the fourth consecutive loss for the Mets. They had reeled of eight straight wins before the losing streak.

The Mets took a 1-0 lead in the first on a sac fly by L.J. Mazzilli, but Austin Green put the Flying Tigers ahead for good when he blasted a three-run homer off of Matt Koch in the second.

Koch and Lakeland starter Edgar De La Rosa dueled through the middle innings until the Flying Tigers put up four in the seventh.

The rehabbing Austin Dirks crushed a pitch from Koch off the wall in right for a double that plated Jared Reeves. Koch was replaced by Tim Peterson, who surrendered a two-out, two-run single to Connor Harrell that gave Lakeland a 7-1 lead.

Tyler Hanover singled in a run in the eighth, and Peterson’s wild pitch later in the frame scored Reeves to make it 9-1 Flying Tigers.

Mazzilli extended his hitting streak to eight games with an RBI triple in the eighth. He scored on Reeves’ throwing error on the play to make it 9-3, but it was too little, too late for the Mets.

With the bases loaded and one out in the ninth, Calvin Drummond struck out Jeff McNeil and got Mazzilli to fly out to center to end the game.

De La Rosa pitched seven strong innings, giving up just four hits and one unearned run to get the win.

Koch lasted 6 1/3 and was tagged for six runs, all earned. Entering the seventh he had retired 11 straight batters.

Jared King went 3 for 4 for the Mets in his home debut.

Harrell and James Robbins had two hits apiece for Lakeland. - team press release