sfoggi posted on June 10, 2011 22:43
ORLANDO, Fla. (June 10, 2011) - In a game where wild does not even begin to describe what occurred, the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs (5-2) were on the winning end of a 16-11 game over the Orlando Freedom.
The game featured 20 walks, 12 errors, and 19 hits combined from both clubs. Strangely enough, both teams had a chance to win, despite the fact that the Freedom made eight errors and the Diamond Dawgs allowed nine runs in one inning.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of a game with 20 walks,” said Head Coach Kevin Davidson.
The game took nearly three and a half hours, but the insanity came late.
“It was almost like little league,” said starting pitcher Chad Modomo (West Virginia Wesleyan College).
Modomo went five innings while giving up just two runs.
The Freedom (1-6) struck early in the bottom of the first inning with Anthony Caronia (State College of Florida) starting things off with a leadoff walk. Back-to-back singles followed Caronia’s walk from Zachary Houck (Jacksonville University) and Jake Huxtable (Santa Fe College), one of which plated Caronia. Houck then scored on a Jason Anderson (Daytona State College) fielder’s choice.
Winter Park then got on the board in the third inning. With one out, Ryne Knuth (Polk State College) drew a walk. He advanced to second base on a fly ball hit by Omar Cotto (University of Southern California), which was dropped by the center fielder. Todd Hankins (Seminole State College) drove in Knuth on a single to left field, while Cotto advanced to third base and Hankins himself moving up to second on the throw home. After a Michael Danner (Polk State College) walk, Alex Cruz (Georgia Tech) drove Cotto in on a single to right field making the score 4-2 in favor of the Diamond Dawgs.
Winter Park tacked on another run in the fourth inning to make the score 5-2.
In the fifth inning, the Diamond Dawgs added three more runs to their lead, as nine batters came to the plate, four of them reached base via walk.
The sixth inning was when things got crazy at Orel Hershiser Field. Winter Park pushed across another run to obtain a seven run lead and had Orlando on the ropes. However, the Freedom had 14 batters step to the plate, with seven of them drawing walks. There were also three wild pitches by Diamond Dawgs pitchers in the inning. When it was all said and done, Orlando had scored nine runs to take the come from behind lead.
“It was a shock to us,” said B.J. Zimmerman (State College of Florida). “None of us were expecting it.”
Despite losing all momentum, the Diamond Dawgs got over the bottom of the sixth quickly as they answered the Freedom’s nine-run rally with six runs of their own in the seventh inning.
Surprisingly enough, the scoring stopped for an inning until the top of the ninth when Zimmerman hit a solo home run to right field to cap off a night where there was an abundance of scoring.
“That’s just one you’re glad you got a victory,” said Assistant Coach Scott Hilinski.
The Diamond Dawgs will return to Alfond Stadium at Harper-Sheperd Field as they take on the Winter Haven Loggerheads on Saturday, June 11. First pitch is set for 7 p.m.
Mitchell Adams (UCF)