Mets falter twice on Saturday against Flying Tigers

LAKELAND, Fla. (June 10, 2017) - It was an ugly Saturday at Joker Marchant Stadium for the St. Lucie Mets. The Flying Tigers won the resumption of Friday's suspended game 6-5 in 14 innings, then the Flying Tigers cruised to a 9-1 win in Saturday's regularly scheduled game.
 
The teams resumed Friday's suspended game with score 5-5 in the top of the 12th. The Mets couldn't get anything going on offense, as Lakeland relievers Bryan Garcia and Gerson Moreno struck out six of the first seven Mets they faced.
 
Finally in the bottom of the 14th inning the Flying Tigers loaded the bases on two singles and an intentional walk against Cameron Griffin. Griffin faced Elvis Rubio with two outs and walked him on five pitches to force home the winning run.
 
In the next game, the Flying Tigers scored seven of their nine runs with two outs and got two massive home runs from Wade Hinkle and Joey Pankake.
 
Hinkle hit his two-run bomb with two outs in the first inning off of Andrew Church. Lakeland built a 4-0 lead and pulled away for good when Pankake crushed a three-run homer off of Church in the seventh for a 7-0 lead.
 
The Mets could only muster one run on a sac fly from J.C. Rodriguez in the seventh inning. The Mets had the bases loaded with no outs in the frame.
 
The Flying Tigers lead the series 3-0. The Mets have only scored in three of the 32 innings in the series.
 
The Mets (30-30) will look to avoid the sweep when the teams meet for the final time in 2017 on Sunday at 1 p.m.