Lakeland 4 - St. Lucie 2

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (May 12, 2018) – Lakeland starting pitcher Austin Sodders stymied the St. Lucie Mets on Saturday in a 4-2 win for the Flying Tigers at First Data Field.

The left-handed Sodders took a no-hitter into the eighth inning. He walked the leadoff batter J.J. Franco then struck out Dash Winningham. Sodders fell behind in the count 3-1 to Dan Rizzie and Rizzie hit the next pitch up the middle for a single to break up the no-no.

Sodders was taken out of the game after the Rizzie hit with Lakeland leading 4-0.

The Mets ended up loading the bases and getting a run on a ground out from Andres Gimenez. Kevin Kaczmarski followed with a RBI infield single to make it 4-2.

In the ninth, Franco came to the plate as the tying run and hit a long fly out to the warning track in left. Reliever Joe Navilhon then struck out Winningham to end the game.

Lakeland scored two runs against Mets starter Gary Cornish in the fourth inning on a RBI single by Cole Bauml and a sac fly by Anthony Pereira.

Daniel Pinero hit a RBI single off of Matt Blackham in the fifth inning to make it 3-0.

Chad Sedio led off the seventh with a triple. He would score on a passed ball to put the Flying Tigers up 4-0.

That was plenty of offensive support for Sodders. He walked four batters but did retire 11 in a row at one point. He was helped defensively by left fielder Cam Gibson, who made a running catch on the warning track to steal a double from Jacob Zanon and leaped at the wall to take away a possible home run from Luis Carpio.

The final line for Sodders: 7.1 innings, one hit, two runs, two earned runs, four walks and four strikeouts. He threw 106 pitches.

Cornish took the loss. He allowed two runs and five hits in four innings.

The Mets were held to three singles one night after setting a season high in hits and runs.