Sports Lowdown

Travis d'Arnaud The Brevard County Manatees had their three-game winning streak snapped Sunday, as the visiting St. Lucie Mets came away with a 7-0 victory at Space Coast Stadium. Kevin McGowan threw five no-hit innings for the Mets, before exiting. He threw 60 pitches, 36 for strikes. “McGowan’s been throwing out of the bullpen and throwing real well,” said Manatees manager Joe Ayrault. "It just wasn’t our night.(Paul) Paez, who came in after him is a crafty lefty and I think he’s got 10 games and a zero ERA, just kept us off-balance with soft stuff." St. Lucie (27-29) got on the board in the top of the third inning when MLB rehabber Travis d'Arnaud stroked an RBI single to left, against Manatees starting pitcher Angel Ventura. They came back to load the bases in the fourth, with two singles sandwiched between a walk, loading the bases. That brought Jhoan Urena to the plate. He grounded slowly to Dustin DeMuth at first. DeMuth stepped on the bag to...

Clint Coulter The Brevard County Manatees won their third straight game Saturday night, beating the St. Lucie Mets 9-4 in front of 1,674 at Tradition Field. Brevard County had 12 hits as a team, with Dustin Houle being the only member of the starting lineup without a hit. He went 0-for-5. The Manatees (20-35) scored first against St. Lucie starter Scarlyn Reyes (2-7), with a run in the first. Angel Ortega and Dustin DeMuth hit back-to-back one out singles to kick start the offense. DeMuth’s single extended his hitting streak to seven games. Elvis Rubio followed with a walk and Fidel Pena’s ground out scored Ortega with the first run of the night. St. Lucie (26-29) answered in a big way in the bottom of the inning against Brevard starter Bubba Derby, with a two out rally. Amed Rosario, Kevin Taylor and Michael Katz hit consecutive singles, with Katz bringing in the tying run. Tomas Nido put the finishing touches on the inning with a three-run blast to left-center, giving ...

Dustin DeMuth The Brevard County Manatees traveled to St. Lucie Friday night to take on the Mets in game one of a split home-at-home series. It was a tight game throughout, before Dustin Houle came through with a two out, two-run double in the top of the ninth, breaking a 4-4 tie and carrying the Manatees to 6-4 win. Considering Houle didn’t come into the game (replaced Adam Weisenburger in the bottom of the second), it is an even more satisfying outcome. It was a see-saw battle with the Manatees jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. With two outs and Dustin DeMuth at first, Elvis Rubio took Mets starter Ricky Knapp deep over the left field wall, staking the ‘Tees to the early lead. St. Lucie answered in the bottom of the first when Champ Stuart led off with the first of his two triples against Manatees’ hurler Eric Hanhold. Jonathan Johnson’s sacrifice fly made it 2-1, before Hanhold came back to retire the next two batters. The Mets (26-28) used anot...

Dustin Houle The St. Lucie Mets’ offense scored early and often on Monday, coming away with a convincing 9-4 home win over the Brevard County Manatees. The Mets collected 16 hits in the victory, one day after being held to two hits  in a 13-0 loss . The game was close at the outset, with the Manatees grabbing the lead in the top of the first. Things started out much like they did Sunday, with Mets miscues. The difference on this day was that they were able to limit the damage.  Johnny Davis  led off with a bunt back to the mound that Mets’ starter  Casey Delgado  fielded, but threw high to first and Davis was safe. Angel Ortega  then hit the ball to third baseman  Jhoan Urena , who couldn’t get the ball out of the webbing of his glove. That was ruled a hit and put runners at first and second. Dustin DeMuth  was next and he reached on an error when second baseman  Luis Guillorme had the ball go under his glove. Davis scored on t...

Clint Coulter The Brevard County Manatees have had trouble scoring runs in the early going this season. That wasn’t a problem on Sunday, as they put 13 runs on the board in game three of their series against St. Lucie at Tradition Field. The Manatees collected 14 hits in the lopsided victory. Brevard County (3-8) got things rolling in the first inning, scoring five times against Mets’ starter  Scarlyn Reyes . The ‘Tees sent nine men to the plate in the inning, scoring their first run on an  Amed Rosario  error at second.  Clint Coulter  singled and an error by the Jon Mora in left.  George Iskenderian  added an RBI single, making it 3-0.  Dustin Houle  hit into a double play, scoring Coulter and the final run of the inning came home on a double by  Taylor Brennan . Reyes threw 27 pitches in that first inning and he never really recovered. After retiring the Manatees in order in the second, things got out of hand in the thi...

George Iskenderian The Brevard County Manatees lost their fifth straight game Saturday night, a 3-2 squeaker to the St. Lucie Mets at Space Coast Stadium. It was another game of missed opportunities for Brevard County, but the effort was certainly there. Bubba Derby  got the start on the mound for the Manatees and was greeted rather rudely by Mets’ leadoff man,  Champ Stuart . After taking the first pitch for a strike, Stuart took the next offering deep over the right center field wall. One out later, Amed Rosario stung a ball to center that was just out of the reach of a diving Johnny Davis. The ball rolled to the wall and Rosario ended up at third. Derby, making just his second start for the ‘Tees, was not rattled.  He came back to strike out Michael Katz and after walking John Mora, got Tomas Nido to fly out. Considering all the traffic, allowing just the one run was not a bad result. “He had good stuff,” said Manatees’ manager Joe Ayrault when asked abo...

Omar Garcia The Brevard County Manatees and St. Lucie Mets played in the third annual Jackie Robinson Celebration game on Friday. Three Mets’ pitchers combined to strike out 16 Brevard County Manatees on the night, leading the visitors to a 4-0 win at Holman Field in Vero Beach.  Eight out of nine Manatees' starters struck out at least once. The only Brevard County player to escape without a strikeout was Omar Garcia in the nine hole. St. Lucie starter Corey Oswalt (1-0) had nine punch outs over his six innings of work and allowed the only four hits the Manatees would muster all night. The only extra base hit came off the bat of Angel Ortega, a double in the third inning.  Kevin McGowan struck out five in his 2.1 innings of work and MLB-rehabber Josh Edgin struck out the only two batters he faced. The Mets struck out six straight Brevard hitters bridging the seventh and eighth innings. The game was much closer than the score would indicate, with the difference...