4/9/17

St. Lucie 5 - Palm Beach 4


JUPITER, Fla. (April 8, 2017) – The St. Lucie Mets pulled out an exciting 5-4 win over the Palm Beach Cardinals on Saturday at Roger Dean Stadium for their first victory of 2017.

The winning run came in the ninth inning. Dale Burdick led off with a hustle double and moved over to third on Enmanuel Zabala’s sac bunt. John Mora came up and hit a slow roller back to pitcher Jacob Evans, but Burdick charged home and beat Evans’ shuffle throw to the plate.

Josh Torres pitched a perfect ninth and ended the game by striking out Chris Chinea.

Tyler Bashlor pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth to earn the win. He struck out four batters.

The Mets jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first when Peter Alonso bashed a two-run homer to center field. The Mets went up 3-1 on Mora’s two-out RBI single in the second.

New York’s first round draft pick Justin Dunn (19th overall) made his St. Lucie debut and pitched four innings. He struggled with his command, walking five and not recording a strikeout. Of his 81 pitches only 41 were strikes. However, Dunn limited the damage. He only surrendered three runs and three hits.

The Cardinals scored three unanswered runs to take a lead in the early going. Jeremy Martinez lifted a two-out RBI single in the fifth to provide the Cardinals a 4-3 lead.

The Mets were able to answer in the seventh when Jhoan Urena laced a two-out RBI single to plate Wuilmer Becerra and tie the game.

Burdick and Urena went 2 for 4. Alonso went 3 for 5.

The Mets (1-2) will look to split their four-game series with the Cardinals (2-1) when the teams meet for the final time in the first half on Sunday. First pitch from Roger Dean Stadium is 1 p.m.

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