--CHATHAM--The Mets were sent to their third loss by the Chatham A's at Veterans Field, dropping the game 6-3. Hyannis lost leads of 1-0 and 3-2, finally succumbing to a pair of Chatham home runs in the eighth inning.

Chatham's four-run eighth was started with one out, when a Steve LeFaivre (Wake Forest) fly ball into right field caught a draft and sailed over the fence for a solo home run, his first of the year. After a double from veteran Jeremy Cleveland (North Carolina) and an intentional walk to Jamie D'Antona (Wake Forest), Mets reliever Tom Kandybowicz was pulled in favor of lefty Shane Hawk. After forcing a pop-up from the first batter, Hawk met his match in the person of Colt Morton (NC State), who crushed a 1-1 pitch well over the left field scoreboard for a three-run homer. Chatham's second-year closer Zane Carlson (Baylor) came in to pitch the top half of the ninth, earning his second save of the season.

The game originally seemed to be a pitcher's duel, with both starters having excellent outings in no-decision efforts. Chatham starter Tim Stauffer (Richmond) was as dominant as a pitcher could be through his first four innings, not allowing a single ball to leave the infield in that span. Stauffer showed glimmers of his 15-2 spring season with a seven-inning, three-hit, eleven-strikeout performance. The win in the game went to reliever Thomas Pauly (Princeton), who actually went into the bottom of the eighth inning in line for the loss. On the Hyannis side, Joey Watts (Tampa) was impressive in his 6 1/3 innings. He scattered five hits for two runs, striking out five and walking two. Kandybowicz was handed the loss to fall to 0-1.

The first Hyannis run came without a hit, as Ben Harrison led off the fifth with a walk and traveled to home via a failed double play, a stolen base, and a squeeze bunt by Travis Garcia. The following inning was started off by a single from Brandon Green, who eventually came home on an RBI single from Mike Griffin (2-for-4 on the day). The final run was also scored by Green, who led off the eighth with a walk and scored on a wacky defensive miscue. Logan Sorensen weakly hit a sinking line drive near the third baseman, who misread the spin and watched it go off his glove and past him for an error.

LeFaivre was responsible for Chatham's first two runs with a two-out double to right center in the fifth. He and catcher Chris Ianetta (North Carolina) were the only multiple hitters for the A's.

Stats of note...the Mets were struck out 14 times (every batter at least once) by Chatham pitching, most notably by Stauffer, who had a streak of six consecutive Ks at one point...of the Mets' eight stranded runners, four were left on in the last two innings and three of those were in scoring position...this game was the Mets' first errorless defensive performance of the year.