Alex Ramirez, Photo by Ed Delany of MMN
The 2021 St. Lucie Mets are the Low-A Southeast East champions. They defeated the Jupiter Hammerheads 7-4 on Sunday in Port St. Lucie to claim the title on their home turf.
It came down to the wire for St. Lucie, but that’s what we all love about the magic of September baseball, right? For these minor leaguers, it’s just as special of a time as the major leaguers. The Mets came into their final six-game series against the Jupiter Hammerheads three games back of Jupiter and it was a true “winner takes all” series.
The Mets claimed games one and two of the series on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively, but Jupiter came back to claim game three on Thursday. Friday’s game would be suspended and completed on Saturday. Down by one game, St. Lucie defeated Jupiter to tie the standings entering into the final game of the series and the season on Sunday at Clover Park.
St. Lucie quickly went up 3-0 in the first inning and tacked on another run in the fourth to make it a 4-0 game. Jupiter answered in the fourth with three runs and tied the game in the sixth. Neither club scored a run in the seventh, but it was St. Lucie who answered big in the eighth, scoring another three runs to take a 7-4 lead and a lead they would not look back on.
St. Lucie went on to defeat Jupiter 7-4 in exciting fashion at Clover Park on Sunday to claim the title of Low-A Southeast East champions.
After winning four of their last five games, the Mets finished their season 60-55, with a 41-27 winning record against East Division opponents as well.
Though they were crowned East Division champions on Sunday, St. Lucie will not have an opportunity to participate in postseason play as Minor League Baseball’s playoff rules are that only the top two teams in the league regardless of record will participate in the postseason. Both the Tampa Tarpons and Bradenton Marauders (both West Division teams) finished with better records than St. Lucie, therefore it will be Tampa or Bradenton who will be crowned Low-A champions for 2021.
St. Lucie has a lot to be proud of in 2021. This season’s East Division championship is the first division championship the club has won since 2016 when they won the second half of the 2016 Florida State League South Division title.
