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Urena’s big hits lead St. Lucie Mets to 3-2 win over Daytona

Adam MacDonald
Special to TCPalm

Jhoan Urena sparked a struggling St. Lucie Mets offense to life on Monday in a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over the Daytona Tortugas at First Data Field.

The Mets trailed 2-0 in the middle of the sixth and had failed to score a run in 14 straight innings dating to Sunday. A balk by Tortugas reliever Juan Martinez in the bottom of the sixth broke the icy stretch and forced Arnaldo Berrios home to put the Mets on the board.

Then Jhoan Urena cranked a two-out RBI double to score John Mora to tie the game 2-2.

Urena came back up in the eighth inning with one out and ripped a single into right field that brought in J.C. Rodriguez for the go-ahead run. Rodriguez started the rally with a double.

Justin Dunn, the Mets' first-round draft pick from 2016, pitched the final three innings and did not allow a run. He gave up just one single to the 10 batters he faced. Dunn was credited with the win.

Chris Flexen started the game for the Mets and struck out eight Tortugas in 5⅓ innings. He scattered five hits, gave up just one earned run and did not walk a batter.

The Tortugas scored the game’s first run on Gavin LaValley’s 12th homer of the year, a solo shot off of Flexen with two outs in the fourth.

Nick Senzel, the No. 2 overall draft pick by the Reds in 2016, hit a two-out RBI single in the top of the sixth to make it 2-0 Tortugas.

A combination of three Tortugas relievers – Brian Hunter, Juan Martinez and Jake Paulson – couldn’t hold the Mets down over the final three innings.

The Mets won for the seventh time in their last nine games and the fifth time in their last six contests. They are back to .500 at 26-26 and only 4.5 games behind first place Palm Beach with 18 games remaining in the FSL’s first half.

The Mets (26-26) and Tortugas (27-24) meet for the second game of their series at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at First Data Field.