St. Lucie, Palm Beach, Split Doubleheader

The St. Lucie Mets and Palm Beach Cardinals split a double header Thursday night at Digital Domain Park. The split puts the Mets at 35-32 on the season, two games ahead of the Ft. Myers Miracle for first place in the FSL South Division. With only three games to play in the first half, the Mets need either one win or one Ft. Myers Miracle loss to clinch the first half division title.



The Mets jumped ahead early in game one, but could not protect the lead falling 9-6. A two-run single by Wilmer Flores and an RBI single by Cesar Puello gave the Mets a 3-0 lead after one inning. The Cardinals answered right back scoring three times in the second and three more times in the fourth off of starter Scott Moviel to take a 6-3 lead. Mike Powers allowed a solo home run in the fifth inning in relief of Moviel putting the Mets in a 7-3 hole. Two more runs charged to Powers in the sixth inning put the game out of reach for the Mets. Francisco Pena homered in the sixth to cut the lead to 9-5 and the Mets put the first three runners on in the seventh inning but could not get the clutch hit, dropping game one 9-6. Pedro Zapata, Juan Lagares and Jefry Marte all had two hits for the Mets with Marte and Wilmer Flores both driving in a pair in the loss.



In game two the Mets fell behind early after starter Jack Egbert allowed two runs in the first inning. St. Lucie answered in the second inning scoring four times as the first five batters to step to the plate reached base. Pedro Zapata’s sacrifice fly gave the Mets a 4-2 lead. St. Lucie tacked on another run in the third inning on a sacrifice by Robbie Shields giving the Mets a 5-2 lead. The Cardinals would not go down without a fight, scoring three times in the fifth off of Egbert to tie the game. With the game tied in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Mets loaded the bases with two outs and a walk to Wilmer Flores scored what proved to be the game winning run. Things got interesting in the top of the seventh inning as Nick Carr walked the bases loaded with two outs before striking out the final batter of the game to secure the Mets 6-5 win. Juan Lagares and Cesar Puello both had three hits, Robbie Shields drove in a pair and Wilmer Flores had two hits and two runs scored in the win. Jeff Kaplan, Josh Edgin and Nick Carr combined to toss the final three innings without allowing a run. Edgin got the win in his first appearance with St. Lucie and Carr recorded his seventh save of the season.