sfoggi posted on July 15, 2011 20:50
LEESBURG, Fla. (July 15, 2011) – The doubleheader Friday night was billed as the biggest games of the season and rightly so. Leesburg entered the game just a half game behind the rival Diamond Dawgs for first place in the Florida League. With a split in the two game set, Leesburg remained a half game behind at the end of the night.
After a one hour fifteen minute rain delay that threatened to wash away the second doubleheader between the Lightning and Diamond Dawgs, both teams took the field in the sloppy conditions.
The low scoring first game was due to in part to steady pitching by both starters. Friday’s first game pinned two pitchers who held a 3-1 records against each other.
Mike Albaladejo (Florida Atlantic) drove in the Lightning’s first two runs, both scored by Tom Sicking (UTPA), on sacrifice flies in the third and fifth innings.
Hunter Mayfield (Rollins) doubled home another run to give the Lightning a 3-0 lead.
Leesburg starter Dylan Ortega (Brevard CC) took the mound in the first game looking to get the Lightning started in the right direction. He did just that over five plus innings of work. Just like Nic Kovacs (Lake Sumter CC) the night before, Ortega refused to walk a batter pounding the strike zone. He held the Diamond Dawgs scoreless for five innings, but a big double would score two runs and end Ortega’s night with the Lightning holding a slim 3-2 lead.
Leesburg added one more insurance run in the sixth when Winter Park allowed Sicking to steal second base uncontested and Jacob Tillotson (Santa Fe) drove him in on the next pitch.
Ortega’s bullpen would pick him up and allow him his fourth win of the season when dominant closer Max Rusch (Flagler) came in for Ortega and effectively got the last four outs of the game in a remarkable 18 pitches. Rusch picked up his fifth save of the season as Leesburg took the game 4-2.
Game two was all bad blood between the two teams.
Winter Park used a late scoring spree to come back and split the doubleheader with a 9-1 win.
Both teams were rattled by an altercation and the Diamond Dawgs threatened to add to their lead, but Micah Kellogg (Flagler) bared down and worked out of the next three innings.
The Lightning scored their only run in the bottom of the third when Zane Evans (Georgia Tech) plated Tillotson with a single.
Winter Park opened up the scoring spree in the sixth inning with six runs that put any chance of a comeback by the Lightning down. The runs were charged to Kellogg and Carlton Patton (Dallas Baptist).
It will be a tight race down the stretch between these two teams and given Friday night’s fireworks, it will also be a heated battle. Winter Park narrowly edged out Leesburg in last year’s championship and it looks like the two teams could meet at Tropicana Field once again in a few weeks.
The Lightning will take on Sanford at 7:00 p.m. at Pat Thomas Stadium Saturday (July 16) night.
Nick Beardi (Medaille College)