Port St. Lucie Wins Thriller With Merritt Island

The Port St. Lucie Jaguars squared off with the Merritt Island Mustangs Wednesday night in 6A regional quarterfinal action. The Mustangs held a three-run lead entering the seventh inning, but three runs from the Jaguars in the seventh tied the game, and in the extra frame a walk-off hit from Jose Barrios propelled the Jaguars to a thrilling 6-5 victory.

The Mustangs jumped out to the 1-0 lead in the first inning on a double from Jackson Muldowney that scored Connor Allen. The Jaguars (15-9) countered quickly when Jose Barrios scored his first run of the game with one out in the bottom of the third inning to tie the game.

The stalemate was short lived, as Mason Denaburg busted things open for the Mustangs (20-8). Denaburg tripled to right field to score two for the 3-1 lead. Merritt Island quickly added to the lead with an RBI single from Allen, giving it a 4-1 advantage.

“Those guys can just flat-out hit,” Jaguars manager Johnnie Rhoden said. “They came up with some clutch hits all night, including the one-out triple.”

Facing a three-run deficit entering the bottom of the seventh, the first three batters reached for the Jaguars to load the bases for Robert Ocasio, who worked a seven-pitch walk to drive in the second run for the Jaguars. A second consecutive walk scored Troy Martinez from third to close to within one. Down to their final two strikes, Leo Horacio put a ball in play that allowed Barrios to score his second run of the game to tie the game at four and send it into extra innings.

“They just don’t quit,” Rhoden said. “They got up there and got patient, and got a couple walks and a couples hits and all of a sudden we have the bases loaded and we got a couple walks to score runs to make it 4-3.”

With the game heading to extras, Barrios’ heroics continued with two outs. Facing a 1-2 count, Barrios sent a line drive into right field to score the winning run in Ches Goodman to propel the Jaguars to the regional quarterfinal win.

“Jose Berrios was big all game for us,” Rhoden said. “He was 3-for-3, scored a couple runs and had a few big hits for us. He came up on a two-strike count with two outs and singled to right and we were able to walk off with a win.”

Troy Martinez came in and pitched the final 2.2 innings for the Jaguars and allowed no runs on two hits en route to the come-from-behind victory.

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