The St. Lucie Mets played in their first playoff game since the 2012 season and dropped game one of the best-of three series to the Bradenton Marauders 11-6 in Port St. Lucie.
Chris Flexen got the start for the Mets but had a terrible first inning in which he allowed six runs on six hits. Flexen would settle down with three scoreless innings to follow and struck out seven in his four innings of work.
The game would remain 6-0 until the bottom of the fifth inning when the Mets rallied for three runs to make the game close in the short term. Patrick Biondi delivered a two-run single to get St. Lucie on the board and David Thompson knocked in the third run with a double.
Mets reliever Alex Palsha imploded in the seventh inning giving up five runs turning the game into a 11-3 score and the final nail in the coffin.
Thompson doubled in in another run in the bottom of the seventh but the Mets still trailed 11-4 with only six outs left to work with.
After an extremely impressive ninth inning by St. Lucie reliever Tyler Bashlor who struck out three of the four batters he faced with a blazing fastball.
Catcher and Florida State League batting champ Tomas Nido walked with the bases loaded in the bottom half of the 9th to make it 11-5. A run scoring groundout by John Mora made it 11-6 before Luis Guillorme lined out to end the game with two runners on.
Thompson continued his strong season with a 3 for 5 night with RBI. Leadoff man Patrick Biondi had two hits and scored half of the Mets runs.
Reliever Domingo Tapia pitched two scoreless innings with three strikeouts for St. Lucie after a strong finish to the regular season in which he allowed only three runs in his last 16.2 innings.
Outfielder Kevin Kaczmarski left in the fifth inning for a pinch hitter after jamming his shoulder on a head first slide into second base.
St. Lucie will now have to beat Bradenton two games in a row to save their season beginning tonight on the road at 6:30 PM ET with ace P.J. Conlon on the mound.
