FLORIDA STATE LEAGUE: St. Lucie 9, Charlotte 4 St. Lucie turns tide on Charlotte in seventh By LAURA MYERS SunCoast Sports PORT CHARLOTTE — The Charlotte Stone Crabs tussled with St. Lucie on Wednesday, with one team scoring a run or two and the other answering the next inning. But some things you can’t come back from. A series of events in the top of the seventh took the night from a back-and-forth game to an ugly rout, which the Mets won 9-4. St. Lucie (9-10) started the inning with a walk and a bunt single off of Charlotte reliever Lenny Linsky, and moved the runners over with a sacrifice bunt. The Stone Crabs (12-8) intentionally walked Jayce Boyd, loading the bases for Florida State League home run leader Dustin Lawley. At the time, Charlotte was down 5-4 and had created chances in every inning. “Both good hitters,” Stone Crabs manager Brady Williams said. “I thought with Linsky’s sinker, didn’t want a seeing-eye single to give up a run. I thought Lawley was dangerous, but if we made some pitches we had a chance to turn him.” Linsky drew the count to 0-2, and Lawley lined a foul to the left side of the field. It nearly hit the Mets’ third base coach before skipping into the stands and striking a fan. Play stopped for several minutes as medics attended to her. When play resumed, Lawley fouled off another, took a ball, then sent the ball past the left field boardwalk for a grand slam. As the injured fan, a middle-aged woman, was wheeled out of the park with a bandage on her head, Linsky’s first pitch to Kevin Plawecki struck him in the helmet. It did not appear to be intentional, but Linsky was immediately ejected from the game. “The ball slipped and got away,” Williams said. “I know he didn’t try to do it on purpose. But it’s one of those situations where it looks like it, whether it was or wasn’t.” Shay Crawford warmed up as an ambulance came to pick up the fan. After the game, the Stone Crabs had no official word on her condition, though Williams noted he was “glad she was OK.” Crawford finished the game without allowing another run; he has pitched 14.1 scoreless innings since he returned from the disabled list on June 17. But the Stone Crabs, who had amassed 12 hits to that point and had at least one runner on in every inning, went down in order in the three innings following Lawley’s slam. “We didn’t swing the bats after that,” Williams said. Parker Markel left the game early with shoulder soreness. Markel called Williams and head trainer Scott Thurston to the mound with a 1-2 count on Cam Maron in the top of the sixth. He left the game, and Linsky took his place. Markel had allowed five runs (three earned) on six hits and struck out four. “Didn’t want to push it,” Williams said. “There was no reason to. He’d gotten us into the sixth inning.”
Posted on: Thu, 11 Jul 2013 03:43:23 +0000
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