sfoggi posted on June 03, 2011 08:19
SANFORD, Florida (June 2, 2011)- The Sanford River Rats opened their 2011 season with a 5-3 home loss to the defending Florida Collegiate Summer League champion Winter Park Diamond Dawgs Thursday night.
Despite the loss, “There were a lot of positives tonight,” River Rats Head Coach Steve Piercefield said. “These guys played extremely hard tonight.”
River Rats starting pitcher JR Edwards (Lehigh University) took the loss after pitching 4 innings and giving up 7 hits and 5 runs (4 of which were earned runs). Edwards also walked three and only struck out one.
Jeremy Strawn (State College of Florida) started on the mound for Winter Park and earned the win after he threw 5 shutout innings, striking out 8 (including six in a row) and allowing only 3 hits.
“He did an excellent job,” Piercefield said of Strawn. “Guys like that are gonna give everybody trouble because he was able to throw all three pitches for strikes.”
Ryan Heinz (George Washington) and Adam Albers (St. Leo) combined for 5 innings of relief work for Sanford and prevented the Diamond Dawgs from further scoring.
“The bullpen came in for five innings of shutout baseball against one of the better lineups we’re gonna face,” Piercefield said.
“Defense kept doing what it was doing,” Piercefield said about his solid defense, including a 5-4-3 double play to end the sixth inning, and an outfield assist from right fielder James Ramsay (USF) to catcher Andrew Valencia (FGCU) to tag Michael Danner (Polk State College) six feet from the plate in the ninth.
“We threw up a zero in the error column. That’s always nice,” Piercefield said. “We also swung the bat well. As the game progressed, our at-bats got continually better.”
The River Rats had their best scoring opportunity in the sixth when second baseman Austin Liput (USC- Upstate) walked, Andrew Valencia doubled with one out, and Ramsay also walked to load the bases. Unfortunately for Sanford, Winter Park turned a much-needed 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.
Third baseman TJ Gavlick (UNF) scored the first run for Sanford. The second River Rats run came in the eighth. Liput hit a ground ball along the first base line that hit first base and bounced into the outfield, allowing Liput to take second. Ramsay hit his own grounder along the first base line that raced into the outfield, driving in Liput.
The River Rats have their next game at Winter Haven at 7pm on Saturday.
“We’re gonna get after it on Saturday,” Piercefield said. “As the game went along, you saw everyone settle in. If we can maintain that, we’re going to be a powerhouse for the league.”
Neil Tredray (Valencia Community College)