St. Lucie 13, Bradenton 4

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BRADENTON – The Mets (13-8) wrested possession of first place away from the Marauders (12-9) with a 10-run rally in the bottom of the eighth inning for a 13-4 win. The loss was Bradenton’s first when leading after seven innings, and the eighth inning marked the first time ever that a team has scored 10 runs in a single turn at bat against the Marauders in franchise history. Tyler Glasnow made his 2014 debut with the Marauders, turning in five scoreless innings and striking out six, while allowing just two hits and three walks.

St. Lucie trailed 4-3 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning thanks to a four-run Marauders outburst in the seventh. Josh Bell’s two-out RBI single off Randy Fontanez (W, 2-1) trimmed the Marauders deficit to 3-1. Eric Wood followed with a three-run home run to put Bradenton on top. Wood’s home run was his first of the season and the first by a Marauder since April 8.

Robby Rowland (L, 0-2) surrendered consecutive singles to Jairo Perez and Cam Maron to begin the St. Lucie eighth. Rowland struck out Aderlin Rodriguez swinging for the first out without the runners advancing. With Eudy Pina batting, Rowland attempted a throw to second that was missed by Max Moroff, resulting in an error on Moroff and Perez advancing to third. Pina worked a walk to load the bases. Phillip Evans gave the Mets the lead with a shallow fly to left that fell for a single, narrowly alluding Jonathan Schwind. Schwind attempted to pick up the force out at third base, but his throw was wide of Rowland covering the bag, allowing the second run to score on the play and making the score 5-4 in the Mets favor. An infield RBI-single and a run scoring ground out each tacked a run on to the St. Lucie lead, and chased Rowland with the score 8-4. Walker Gourley entered on the mound for the third time in four games, and did not record the final out until five more runs scored, capped by a grand slam to left by Rodriguez.

Glasnow, the third rated prospect in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization according to Baseball America worked around early jams and was dominant at the end of his outing. After allowing a walk and a single with one out in the first, he induced a pop out and a weak fly to left. A leadoff walk and an errant pickoff throw in the second forced Glasnow to pitch with a runner at third and nobody out. He responded with a groundout to Wood, who was playing in, a popup to short, and his first strikeout of the night. Again facing a runner at third and less than two outs in the third, he whiffed the league’s batting average leader followed by the Mets cleanup hitter to escape. Glasnow retired the final eight batters he faced, five by swinging strikeout.

Wood, Bell, Schwind and Moroff all had two hits for Bradenton.

The Marauders play St. Lucie on Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. with a chance to retake a share of first place. Chad Kuhl will start for the Marauders against Domingo Tapia of the Mets. The game will be broadcast online at www.BradentonMarauders.com.

The box score for Saturday's game can be seen here; the Play-by-Play review can be viewed here.