ORLANDO, Fla. (June 7, 2011) - One night after top prospect Bryce Harper made national headlines, Leesburg prospects were making their own at Orel Hershiser Field in Orlando. The Lightning narrowly defeated the Orlando Freedom 9-8 due in part to yet another strong offensive showing.

 

It was a night of firsts for the Lightning (4-0) who saw their first homerun of the season as well as their first injury. In the third inning, Freedom centerfielder Anthony Coronia (State College of Florida) stole second base and Lightning catcher Mike Albaladejo (Florida Atlantic) threw a strike that jumped up and caught Leesburg second baseman Tom Sicking (Texas-Pan American) in the nose. Sicking, who was bleeding, had to be replaced by Eric Sams (Indian River State College). The injury wasn’t serious however, and Sicking isn’t expected to miss any time.

 

The homerun came off the bat of Hunter Mayfield (Rollins College) who sent a belt-high fastball over the right field fence for a three-run shot in the third inning. The homerun was the first for Leesburg on the young season and was put just out of reach of the leaping right fielder. The Lightning would add another run giving them four in the third inning and an early 6-2 lead.

 

“I got a good barrel on it and got just enough,” said Mayfield. “It’s good to get that first one and hopefully we can add more, but I’m not going to change my swing at the plate.”

 

The Freedom (0-4) would storm back in the fourth inning, scoring four runs off three hits and a costly throwing error, which flew over first baseman Chase Durham’s (Howard College) head. 

 

The score would remain at 6-6 until the seventh inning when it was an Orlando error that would prove costly. With a runner on second and two outs, Orlando shortstop Jake Huxtable (Santa Fe College) let a ball get under his glove and Leesburg capitalized on the mistake. They would add two more runs on three hits, including a double by Troy Drummond (Delaware State), who had two on the night.

 

The pitching performances ranged from both sides of the scale for both teams on a night where there were 25 strikeouts; it’s vexing how there could have been such an offensive showing from both teams. For most of the pitchers, it seemed that when they were on, they were unhittable, and when they weren’t they were hit around the ballpark.

 

New York product and Flagler College pitcher Micah Kellogg struck out seven over his three innings of work, including back to back strikeouts with the tying run in scoring position and one out. Max Rusch (Flager College) was given the ball in the ninth inning and promptly closed the door on the Freedom, earning him his first save of the season.

 

Also adding hits for the Lightning were Albaladejo, playing in his first game of the season, showing his veteran presence going 2-for-3 with a double and a run. Shortstop Jacob Tillotson (Florida) also etched his name in the scorebook with three runs, reaching base four times out of his five plate appearances.

 

“I look for a good pitch to hit and I’ve been seeing the ball pretty well,” said Tillotson of his approach at the plate.

 

“Execution is our number one priority,” said hitting coach James Scrubbs, whose team has 40 runs through four games thus far. “Moving the guys around the bases is what’s important and so far we’ve been able to do that.”

 

It’s a battle of the undefeated tomorrow as Leesburg takes on Winter Park at 7:00 p.m.. Both teams are a perfect 4-0.