sfoggi posted on June 23, 2011 19:54
THE VILLAGES, Fla. (June 23, 2011) - The Lightning suffered their fifth loss of the season Thursday night against DeLand in The Villages dropping an 8-4 decision. Early pitching woes put the Lightning in a deep hole that they couldn’t quite dig themselves out of as the game progressed.
One start after a phenomenal outing, Lightning starter Micah Kellogg, pitching out of Flagler College, ran into some early trouble Thursday night. After escaping trouble in the first inning with runners on the corners, Kellogg once again found himself in a jam in the second. With the bases loaded and one out, Head Coach Dave Therneau came out to talk to his pitcher. Kellogg looked like he might escape trouble once again after striking out DeLand centerfielder Stephen Bellantoni (USC-Aiken) and working an 0-2 count on the next batter, but five hits and five runs later, Kellogg was replaced by David Lucroy (East Carolina).
But Lucroy would also find himself in trouble in his first two innings of work, and through three innings it was 7-0 in favor of DeLand. Lucroy threw an incredible amount of pitches for a reliever, but was able to eat up 4 2/3 innings for the Leesburg pitching staff. The Suns added only one run beyond the third inning, but the damage was already done.
For the third time in the last four games, the Lightning ran into a pitching roadblock as DeLand starter Daniel Sanchez (St. Thomas) pitched a gem. The Suns were hoping for a long start from Sanchez after their bullpen was forced to pitch through some extra innings the last two games and that’s just what they got.
Chris Coburn (College of Central Florida) and Chase Durham (Howard College) doubled on back-to-back pitches in the fifth inning and both would score. Other than that, Sanchez was able to keep the explosive Leesburg lineup at bay for the first seven innings of the game. He struck out four and scattered his hits and walks so that the Lightning runs were kept off of the scoreboard.
Patrick Hicks (Dallas Baptist) came on in relief of Lucroy after he reached his pitch limit in his first time out on the mound since his debut on Sunday.
Even a wild ninth inning couldn’t bring the Lightning back. The last frame included hit batsman on back-to-back pitches, an errant throw, a passed ball and some premature action from the sprinkling system at the ballpark, however, the Suns would quell a late rally by the Lightning. Despite two runs, Leesburg would leave the tying run on the on-deck circle as DeLand left fielder Brandon Turner (Bethune-Cookman) made a nice sliding catch to end the game.
Kellogg would drop to 1-1 on the year as the Lightning would drop to 10-5. In what would end up being the only game played Thursday night in the Florida Collegiate Summer League, the Lightning remain in second place in the Florida League standings.
Leesburg looks to enact revenge on the Orlando Freedom at Orel Hershiser Field Friday (June 24) night at 7.
Nick Beardi (Medaille College)