sfoggi posted on June 02, 2011 22:31
SANFORD, Fla. (June 2, 2011) - There was a full house on opening night at Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium as the defending FCSL Champion Winter Park Diamond Dawgs took home a 5-2 victory in the 2011 season opener over the Sanford River Rats.
Winter Park Diamond Dawgs (1-0) ace Jeremy Strawn (State College of Florida) shut down the Sanford River Rats (0-1) in five complete innings on the mound while striking out eight batters on the road for his first win of the season. Strawn was dominant, allowing no runs and scattering three hits.
“That’s exactly what we expected out of him,” said Head Coach Kevin Davidson.
Other top performers included Michael Danner (Polk State College), Mike Reed (Auburn University) and Todd Hankins (Seminole State Community College), who each got two hits off the Rats. All three recorded an RBI, while Hankins added a stolen base and a run, Reed scored a run and Danner added a stolen base.
The Dawgs brought their hitting shoes as they pounded out twelve hits. They drew first blood when B.J. Zimmerman (State College of Florida) drove in Ted Blackman (St. Petersburg Community College) on a fielder’s choice in the first inning. In the second, Albert Lefran (Lake Sumter Community College) led off the inning with a double and later came around to score on a Reed RBI single.
In the top of the fourth, Reed sparked a three run rally for the Dawgs by leading off the inning with a base knock and advancing to second on an Omar Cotto (University of Southern California) walk. In the following at-bat, Reed scored on a Hankins single. Cotto then crossed the plate on a Blackman fielder’s choice for the second run, while Hankins capped off the top half of the inning scoring on a Danner sacrifice fly.
The River Rats managed to score a pair of runs off the Diamond Dawgs in consecutive innings – seventh and eighth – to draw a save situation. Closer Matthew Kimbrel (Shelton State Community College) took the mound in the bottom of the ninth to quickly shut the door on the River Rats to record his first save of the season. According to Davidson, “Kimbrel did a good job of throwing strike one.”
Winter Park will take on the Orlando Freedom in their home opener on Saturday, June 4 at Alfond Stadium at Harper-Shepherd Field. Chad Modomo (West Virginia Wesleyan College) will take the mound for the Diamond Dawgs with first pitch scheduled to be thrown at 7 p.m.
Mitchell Adams (UCF)