Jupiter 8 - St. Lucie 2

The Jupiter Hammerheads jumped out to an early lead and cruised past the St. Lucie Mets 8-2 on Wednesday at Tradition Field.

The Hammerheads tagged Mets starter Kevin McGowan for three runs and four hits in the first inning and led wire-to-wire.

Brian Anderson started the damage with an RBI ground rule double. He broke the game open in the third with a two-run double that put the Hammerheads up safely, 7-1.

McGowan took the loss after giving up 11 hits and eight earned runs in four innings.

Jupiter starter Scott Lyman gave up a triple to Jeff McNeil and an RBI single to Michael Conforto in the bottom of the first but did not allow another hit. He tossed 5.1 innings, striking out three and walking three.

Esmerling De La Rosa, Alex Burgos and C.J. Robinson limited the Mets to one run over the final 3.2 innings.

The Mets received a stellar performance from reliever Ricky Knapp, who tossed five scoreless innings and gave up just one single. He struck out one and induced two double plays.

However, the Mets offense never mounted a comeback despite having a couple chances. The Mets put runners on second and third to start the seventh but only scored one run on Colton Plaia’s ground out. In the eighth, the first two Mets batters also reached second and third with no outs but the Mets did not score at all.

Jeff McNeil had two of St. Lucie’s six hits, a triple and a double.

J.T. Riddle, Austin Dean and Brian Anderson had two-hit games for Jupiter.