sfoggi posted on July 14, 2011 20:53
ORLANDO (July 14, 2011) - The return to action following the 2011 All-Star Game was not kind to the Orlando Freedom as the club took on the Leesburg Lightning Thursday night. The Freedom had previously won four of their last five contests, but were dismantled by the Lightning 8-0 in a tough loss.
Leesburg got out of the gates quickly thanks to a Zane Evans (Georgia Tech) home run. Jacob Tillotson (Santa Fe) led off the game with a first pitch single and was brought home on Evans’ first big fly of the season, giving the Lightning the early 2-0 lead.
Freedom shortstop Anthony Caronia (Tampa) led off the bottom of the first with a single to the left field gap, but was promptly caught on a perfect throw trying to stretch the hit into a double. Leesburg starting pitcher Nic Kovacs (Lake Sumter CC) promptly became nearly unhittable retiring the next nine hitters, allowing just four hits through seven innings.
The Lightning put the game out of reach in the fourth inning, picking up six more runs. The nine-batter inning was capitalized by another Evans two-run blast that put the score at the 8-0 final.
One bright spot for the Freedom was the work of relievers Andy Ladisa (Southern Wesleyan), Josh Larson (Santa Fe) and Ed Brandsema (Montevallo). The three pitchers combined for five innings of work, allowing no runs on just five hits, striking out six.
The Leesburg pitching was the story; however, with Kovacs picking up his fourth victory and Nick Palmer (Lake Sumter) and Andrew White (Dodge City) holding the Freedom scoreless in the eighth and ninth to preserve the shutout.
No Freedom hitter collected more than a single hit, while 10 were fanned in the contest. The Lightning pitchers recorded six 1-2-3 innings. No Freedom runner ever touched third base.
A Freedom victory would have brought the squad out of last place for the first time all season. Orlando has another chance to leave the basement Friday (July 15) as the club takes on the Sanford River Rats on the road at Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium. Game time is slated for 7 pm.
Jake Snyder (Marshall University)