St. Lucie 11, Palm Beach 10

The St. Lucie Mets came one step closer to securing the first half FSL South Division title with an 11-10 come-from-behind victory over the Palm Beach Cardinals Tuesday night at Digital Domain Park. The 11-10 win puts the Mets at 34-31 on the season and are now two full games ahead of the Ft. Myers Miracle for first place in the FSL South Division with five games remaining in the half.


Mets starter Armando Rodriguez was solid through five innings of work. Rodriguez allowed two runs on four hits while racking up ten strikeouts. The Mets were able to jump out to an 8-2 lead through five innings. Juan Lagares got the Mets on the scoreboard with a two-run homerun in the third inning. A four run fourth inning was keyed by back-to-back two-run doubles by Pedro Zapata and Matt den Dekker giving the Mets a 6-1 lead. Back-to-back home runs by Stefan Welch and Wilmer Flores in the fifth inning gave the Mets a commanding 8-2 lead. The Palm Beach Cardinals would not go down without a fight. Trailing 8-3, the Cardinals scored seven times in the eighth inning to put the Mets in a late 10-8 hole. St. Lucie would answer right back in the bottom of the frame. Cesar Puello tripled with one out and scored on an RBI single by J.B. Brown making it a 10-9 game. Pedro Zapata singled with two outs followed by a walk to Matt den Dekker set the stage for Juan Lagares. Lagares doubled in Zapata and den Dekker with the tying and eventual winning runs giving the Mets the 11-10 lead. Nick Carr retired the Cardinals 1-2-3 in the ninth to secure the Mets win.

Juan Lagares was the hero of the night for the Mets. Lagares belted his fifth home run leading the Mets with three hits, four RBI and a run scored. Pedro Zapata had two hits while scoring twice and driving in a pair. Wilmer Flores and J.B. Brown both had two hits, two runs and an RBI and Matt den Dekker drove in two and scored once in the 11-10 win.

from team press release