Stone Crabs sweep St. Lucie with 5-2 comeback win

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (August 18, 2019) - Niko Hulsizer and Brandon Lowe led the Charlotte Stone Crabs to a 5-2 comeback win over the St. Lucie Mets Sunday, giving the Stone Crabs a commanding 6.5 game lead in the division race.
With Charlotte (77-48, 42-17) leading the FSL South by 3.5 games entering the series, the Stone Crabs out-scored St. Lucie (67-57, 25-23) 20-3 in the series to drop their magic number to eight.
With Charlotte trailing 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth, Hulsizer drove in the first Stone Crabs run with single to center to make it 2-1. Hulsizer finished 3-for-4 in his Charlotte debut after being traded to Tampa Bay from the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trade deadline.
Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh, Mets reliever Marcel Renteria retired the first two batters before running into major trouble. Wander Franco and Joey Wendle both singled before Lowe ripped a two-run double to the right field corner to put the Stone Crabs in front 3-2. The next batter was Ronaldo Hernandez , who cranked a two-run homer to left to extend the lead to 5-2.
Charlotte starter Michael Plassmeyer went five innings of one-run ball before Jack Labosky (3-6) logged 2.1 frames to earn the win. Cristofer Ogando got the final four outs to earn a save in his Charlotte Sports Park debut.
After an off-day Monday, the Stone Crabs will begin a three-games series with the Fort Myers Miracle at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Coverage of the game starts at 6:15 p.m. on the Stone Crabs Baseball Network.