sfoggi posted on June 08, 2011 11:20
ORLANDO, Fla. (June 7, 2011) - The Orlando Freedom (0-4) trailed by as many as five runs Tuesday night at Orel Hershiser Field, and were able to make two comeback bids before falling short to the Leesburg Lightning (4-0), 9-8.
“That’s one thing I want: for this team to grow a little character and never give up,” Freedom head Coach Scott Makarewicz said. “We just kept coming back. Got down by four; came back. Got down by three; came back. We just cut down on the physical mistakes, which are going to happen, and keep throwing strikes again.”
For the fourth straight game, the Freedom gave up first inning runs finding themselves in an early hole. Tuesday night, the runs came off of starting pitcher Garrett Nuss (Mt. Dora HS). Nuss, the lone member of the Freedom squad on a high school roster this past spring, was overpowering at times with a fastball in the low 90s, but struggled in the first, giving up two runs.
The Freedom answered quickly in the first. With two on and two outs, Lawrence Pardo (Appalachian St.) hit a slow roller to the Lightning’s pitcher and as he came up, threw hard to first and overthrew the ball allowing Jake Huxtable (Santa Fe College) to score, bringing the game within one.
Nuss was perfect in the second, but ran into trouble again in the third. After a leadoff double, a walk and a fielder’s choice plated one run, Nuss walked one more to bring up cleanup hitter Hunter Mayfield (Rollins College) with two on base. Mayfield hit a shot over the right field wall just out of jumping reach of Chris Suto (Lake Sumter CC), and just like that, the Lightning led 6-1.
The Freedom began to chip away immediately in the bottom half of the third. Leadoff hitter Anthony Caronia (State College of Florida) laid down a textbook drag bunt for a single before stealing second and third. A Huxtable fly ball to right with one out was deep enough to score the speedy Caronia to bring the game within four.
Down four, the Freedom had no plans to go down without a fight. In the bottom of the fourth inning, Orlando grabbed one run on another throwing error, before loading the bases with two outs and Huxtable coming to the plate. Huxtable launched a double to the left field wall plating all three runners and tying the game at six.
The scoring came to a halt for the next three innings before the Lightning struck again in the seventh when the Freedom ran into some bad luck. An error, a broken bat infield single, and a bad hop plated three runs, allowing Leesburg to again take control.
And again, the Freedom fought back. With one out in the seventh, Orlando strung together three straight hits, including a double by Jason Anderson (Daytona St.) to knock in two runs and bring the game within one.
The three run seventh would complete the scoring for both squads as dominate pitching took over for the two teams. For the Freedom, relief pitcher Josh Larson (Santa Fe) came in and shut the door on the potent Lightning offense, working two innings and giving up no runs on just one hit while striking out two.
Max Rusch (Flagler College) came in for the Lightning came in for the bottom of the ninth and shut the door on the Freedom heart of the order. Rusch put Orlando down 1-2-3 and grabbed the save that left the Freedom again looking for their first victory.
The bright spot for the Freedom on the day was the innings of work put in by relievers. Three pitchers went a total of five innings for the squad, striking out six and giving up no earned runs. Unfortunately, the three unearned runs given up in the seventh would be the difference. Taylor Hammonds (Samford University) took the loss for Orlando even though all of his runs allowed were unearned.
“We just got to get the guys to keep believing in their pitches and we’ll be fine here,” Makarewicz said. “We’ll go on a streak. This is a losing streak, but we’ll go on a winning streak as well.”
The Freedom were led offensively by Huxtable and Caronia. Huxtable knocked in four runs on two hits while Caronia grabbed just one hit but scored twice.
Orlando will have another chance to get the first win monkey off their back quickly, returning to action immediately Wednesday, June 8 against the DeLand Suns at Orel Hershiser Field at The First Academy. First pitch slated for 7:00 pm.
Jake Snyder (Marshall)