Game Recap: Flying Tigers strike out 15, beat St. Lucie Mets 6-3

 

De Los Santos, Perozo homer in loss

 

LAKELAND, Fla. (July 4, 2023) – The Lakeland Flying Tigers defeated the St. Lucie Mets 6-3 on Independence Day at Joker Marchant Stadium (Box Score).

 

The Flying Tigers received a dominant pitching performance from a trio of relievers. After starter Marco Jimenez left due to injury with no outs in the second inning, Chris Williams, Eric Mendez and Cleiverth Perez combined for 15 strikeouts and just two walks over the last eight innings.

 

Meanwhile, the Flying Tigers offense roughed up Mets starter Layonel Ovalles the second and third time through the order. Ovalles didn’t give up a hit the first time through the order, but the top three hitters for Lakeland recorded hits with one out in the third.

 

Leadoff hitter Seth Stephenson hit an infield single, Luke Gold smoked a RBI double for a 1-0 and Andrew Jenkins laced a RBI single to make it 2-0. Archer Brookman capped the inning with a run-scoring single to make it 3-0.

 

The Mets got on the board against Williams in the fourth when Jefrey De Los Santos hit an opposite field solo home run.

 

The Flying Tigers knocked Ovalles out of the game in the two-run fifth. Jenkins hit another RBI single for a 4-1 lead. Christopher Vasquez came in and allowed a two-out RBI infield hit to Carlos Pelegrin that made it 5-1.

 

Alvaro Gonzalez crushed a solo homer off Vasquez in the sixth to make it 6-1.

 

The Mets tried to rally back against Perez in the eighth. Jett Williams opened the inning with a double and two batters later Vincent Perozo banged an opposite field two-run homer to cut the deficit to 6-3. It was Perozo’s fifth homer of the season.

 

De Los Santos and Yeral Martinez followed with hits, but Perez struck out FernandoVillalobos as the tying run to get out of trouble.

 

Perez pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the game.

 

The Mets went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position. They struck out three times in an inning three times.

 

Ovalles took the loss. He allowed five runs (four earned) over 4.1 innings. He walked three and struck out three.

 

Williams got the win in his return from the FCL Tigers. He pitched 4.0 innings and struck out seven while giving up just two hits and one run.

 

De Los Santos went 3 for 4 in the loss.

 

Wilfredo Lara went 0 for 4 to end his nine-game hitting streak.

 

The Mets (3-6, 27-47) and Flying Tigers (5-5, 31-44) play game 2 of their series at Joker Marchant Stadium on Wednesday. First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.