St. Lucie Mets Recap: Flying Tigers Record 16 Strikeouts, Beat St. Lucie Mets 6-1

St. Lucie Mets Via X/Twitter

Series even 2-2

Box Score

By Adam MacDonald, St. Lucie Mets Broadcaster

 

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (July 12, 2024) – The Lakeland Flying Tigers evened the series with the St. Lucie Mets 2-2 with a 6-1 victory on Friday night at Clover Park.

 

Four Flying Tigers pitchers combined to strike out the Mets 16 times and issue just one walk. Starter Hayden Minton tossed 5.0 scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts to get the win.

 

The Flying Tigers did not score any of their six runs with a hit. Eduardo Valencio hit a sac fly in the first inning off Mets starter Ernesto Mercedes. Clayton Campbell lobbed another sac fly against Mercedes in the fourth inning for a 2-0 Flying Tigers lead.

 

Those would be the only two runs given up by Mercedes, who pitched 5.0 innings. He scattered three hits, walked two and struck out five.

 

Lakeland scored two runs in the seventh to start to pull away. No balls were put in play in the inning. Reliever Joseph Yabbour walked the bases loaded. Wilson Lopez replaced Yabbour and walked his first batter to force in a run. Lopez balked home another run to increase the Lakeland lead to 4-0. Yabbour was able to record a strikeout in the inning and Lopez struck out two batters.

 

The Mets looked like they would threaten in the bottom of the seventh. Estarling Mercado and Yohairo Cuevas started the inning with consecutive doubles against Luke Stofel. The Cuevas double plated Mercado to make it 4-1. However, Stofel retired three in a row to strand Cuevas, then he retired all three batters he faced in the eighth.

 

Lakeland scored two more runs in the ninth off Juan Arnaud. Eduardo Valencia hit into a bases loaded double play to bring in a run. A passed ball on catcher Vincent Perozo brought home Brett Callahan for the final run of the night.

 

Cuevas went 1 for 4. The double extended his on-base streak to 18 games.

 

Willy Fanas was 2 for 4.

 

The Mets outhit Lakeland 7-5. They dropped to 10-4 at home when outhitting their opponent.

 

The Mets (7-12, 29-56) and Flying Tigers (11-8, 53-31) play the fifth game of their series at Clover Park on Saturday. It's the Mets annual Christmas in July game. Fans who bring a toy donation for the WPSL Christmas Kids get a free ticket. All fans will receive a pair of holiday pajama pants as a giveaway item. There will be postgame fireworks. First pitch is 6:10 p.m.