St. Lucie 5, Dunedin 3
After dropping five of their last six games despite some solid pitching, the St. Lucie Mets were able to put together a respectable offensive output and best the Dunedin Blue Jays by a score of 5-3.
Alex Panteliodis got the start for the Mets and had himself a nice outing. In his fourth start of the season, the 22-year old southpaw went 5.2 frames allowing two runs (1ER) on four hits while walking two and punching out four, picking up his first win on the year. Panteliodis ran into trouble in the early innings of the ballgame, however settled down and finished strong. In the first, Panteliodis allowed a one-out double to right off the bat of Jonathan Jones to give the Jays an early runner in scoring position. A pickoff attempt gone wrong allowed Jones to go to third to set the table for Andy Burns who drove in the first run of the game on a fly ball to center, tying it up a one. Then in the bottom of the second, Nick Baligod drove a two-bagger of his own to score Pierce Rankin and give Dunedin a one run lead.
The Mets also had some early production of their own. T.J. Rivera led off the ballgame with a double to right fielder Mike Crouse. Two groundballs following would bring him around with the first run of the afternoon. Down 2-1 in the fourth, Matt Reynolds led off the inning by getting himself into scoring position with a double as well. Later on in the frame Aderlin Rodriguez stepped up with a knock to tie this one up. Travis Taijeron started a rally in the fifth with a one-out infield hit. Gilbert Gomez would walk to set up a first and second position for Rivera who lined one to left to bring home Taijeron and hand St. Lucie the one run advantage. They would tack on insurance runs in the sixth when Dustin Lawley and Rylan Sandoval reached on errors to make it 4-2. Taijeron roped his sixteenth double on the year to score Sandoval, adding to the total to make it a three-run ballgame.
Chasen Bradford had himself a rough go of it in the seventh when he allowed three straight men to reach base but managed to retire the side allowing on one run to cross as the St. Lucie Mets went on the win 5-3 and improve to 25-18 on the year.
Noah Syndergaard takes the mound for St. Lucie tomorrow as he looks to continue his streak of impressive pitching.
Key Stats
T.J. Rivera: 2-for-4, 1 2B, 1 RBI
Aderlin Rodriguez: 1-for-4, 1 RBI
Travis Taijeron: 2-for-4, 1 2B, 1 RBI, 1 R
Alex Panteliodis: 5.2 IP, 4 H, 2 BB, 2 R, 1 ER, 4 K
Chasen Bradford: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 ER, 2 K
Hamilton Bennett: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 ER, 1 K
T.J. Chism: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 BB