The St. Lucie Mets were six outs away from ending their losing streak Saturday before a disastrous eighth inning turned a 3-1 lead into a 10-3 loss to the Tampa Tarpons at Clover Park.

Tampa scored six unearned runs in the eighth inning, capitalizing on four Mets errors, then added three more runs in the ninth to pull away on Independence Day. The Tarpons extended their winning streak to eight games, while St. Lucie dropped its ninth straight.

The Mets led 3-1 entering the eighth after building the advantage with timely offense and strong relief work. But Tampa's comeback began after Hans Montero reached and eventually scored the tying run when Bryce Martin-Grudzielanek hit a two-out ground ball to third baseman Branny De Oleo. The ball deflected off De Oleo's glove for an error, allowing Montero to come home and even the game at 3-3.

The inning continued from there, and David McCann delivered the decisive blow with a three-run home run off Conner Ware to give Tampa a 6-3 lead. McCann struck again in the ninth, launching another three-run homer off Luis Alvarez to make it 10-3.

McCann finished 3-for-4 with two home runs, a single, a walk and seven RBI. The performance came one day after he went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts.

St. Lucie had trailed 1-0 early before tying the game in the fourth inning on an RBI groundout by Simon Juan. Chase Meggers gave the Mets a 2-1 lead in the fifth with a two-out RBI single against Tyler Boudreau. Juan then added a solo home run off Boudreau in the sixth to stretch the lead to 3-1.

Ware had kept Tampa quiet through three scoreless innings before the eighth-inning unraveling. He took the loss after allowing five runs over 3.2 innings, though all five were unearned.

Tampa reliever Jose M. Rodriguez earned the win after pitching a perfect seventh inning.

The Mets fell to 2-10 in the second half and 35-43 overall. Tampa improved to 11-3 in the second half and 46-34 overall.

The teams close their six-game series Sunday at Clover Park, with first pitch scheduled for 12:10 p.m. It will be Little League Day. Little leaguers who wear their jerseys will receive free admission and a gift courtesy of Holiday Inn Express.