Brevard County Manatees Bats Held In Check By Mets
By Brevard County Manatees // July 20, 2013
Brevard falls 3-1 to St. Lucie
BREVARD COUNTY • VIERA, FLORIDA – A strong pitching performance from starting pitcher Jed Bradley was not enough for the Brevard County Manatees as they fell 3-1 to the St. Lucie Mets at Tradition Field on Friday night.
Bradley (4-4, 4.14 ERA) allowed just one run, which came in the first inning, on two hits over five innings.
The Brevard County (14-12 second half, 51-42 overall) lefty walked a batter and fanned two.
Jayce Boyd drove in the first run of the game on a ground out to second base that plated Kyle Johnson, who smacked a leadoff double in the first inning.
The 1-0 St. Lucie (15-11, 52-41) lead would hold up all the way into the seventh.
Kevin Plawecki delivered an RBI single against Alex Moore to double the Mets lead. Moore, who had pitched a scoreless sixth, allowed just the one run on three hits in 1.1 innings. After Santo Manzanillo allowed a run in the eighth on a Dustin Lawley sacrifice fly, St. Lucie led 3-0 heading into the ninth.
Lefty Brent Suter will toe the rubber for Brevard County. He will be opposed by Michael Fulmer, who will make just his third start of the season for St. Lucie at 6:30.
The ‘Tees had one final chance in the top of the ninth and it started with Greg Hopkins reached on a fielding error by shortstop Matt Reynolds to lead off the frame.
Hopkins would advance on a wild pitch before Ben McMahan and Lance Roenicke each grounded out to third.
Rafael Neda then hit a slow chopper to short that Reynolds was unable to handle which resulted in the first run of the game for the Manatees, as Hopkins scored.
The tying run then stepped to the plate in the form of Brandon Macias, but T.J. Chism struck out Macias to end the game.
St. Lucie starter Alex Panteliodis hurled seven shutout innings as he scattered four hits on the night and escaped a bases loaded, two-out jam in the second.
The southpaw struck out seven ‘Tees on the evening.
McMahan provided the only multi-hit game for the Manatees as he went 2-for-4 with a double, which was also Brevard’s only extra-base hit, to dead center field.
Brevard County was held to just five hits total.
The Mets and the Manatees will wrap up their four-game series and season series on Saturday night in Port St. Lucie, with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Lefty Brent Suter (7-5, 2.79 ERA) will toe the rubber for Brevard County. He will be opposed by Michael Fulmer (0-1, 4.50 ERA), who will make just his third start of the season for St. Lucie.
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