COVINGTON - With the final week of Dixie Boys Little League play left at City Pond, the Athletics really wanted to squash all the talk about their dismal 2008 season.

However, the Mets (5-5) refused to end with a loss. Instead, they administered a severe 18-6 drubbing of the A's.

Blake Burgess started on the mound for the Mets with an overpowering fastball that mesmerized the opposing battery. Burgess allowed nine hits, four walks and three earned runs.

The Mets struck first by scoring three runs in the top of the first inning when A's starter Zack Valentine walked the first two batters before giving up a two-run single to Alex Cooper.

After Cooper stole second, he reached home safely on a wild pitch to give the Mets a 3-0 lead entering the second frame.

The A's picked up two runs in the second off two hits, one by George Sumner and the other by Michael Harden. Two runners who had previously walked crossed the plate, cutting the lead, 3-2.

However, the A's could not score any runs in the third, as Burgess turned up the heat with his fastball, sizzling like the 94-degree sun bearing down.

"My fastball was really working for me today," Burgess said. "I feel great about the win."

The heat applied by the Mets burned the A's for four runs in the top of the fourth. Burgess helped his own cause by singling and stealing second. Chase Chaney reached on an error by the shortstop, who was unable to handle a sharp grounder that allowed Burgess to score.

Chaney soon scored when Chris Burbage hit a grounder to first that handcuffed the first baseman for yet another run.

Jared Floyd struck out; however, the catcher mishandled the pitch then made an obscure throw to first that sailed high over the first baseman's head, allowing Burbage across.

Cody McGhee hit a one-out grounder to third to sacrifice Floyd, and before the Mets knew it they were up, 7-2.

The A's attempted a comeback in the bottom of the fourth after scoring four runs. J.C. Goodson singled to left-center before Cameron Leach hit a single, setting up a two-run triple by Sumner.

Jacquon Ross drove a hard RBI single to right, plating Sumner. Hunter Myers followed by singling home Ross to end the inning, putting the A's within striking distance of the Mets entering the fifth, down 7-6.

But the Mets put the game away in the sixth by scoring 11 runs, crushing any hopes of a victory for the A's.

The Mets received four hits in the inning to plate seven of those runs.

"We had a great bunch of young men who came out to play some ball today," said A's coach Jason Dobbs. "Everybody swung the bat and played the field the way they were supposed to.

"They really made me proud today," he added.

For Burgess, the longer he pitched the tougher he got, rendering the A's hitless in the last two innings of action.

At the plate, he went 1-for-4 with 2 scores and a stolen base, earning Player of the Game honors.