sfoggi posted on July 17, 2011 20:52
SANFORD, Fla. (July 17, 2011) – The Sanford River Rats closed their week with an 8-6 loss to the Leesburg Lightning at Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium Sunday night.
“Offensively, we came out and put together a lot of quality at-bats,” River Rats Head Coach Stephen Piercefield said. “The first inning was nice, we had five straight quality at-bats and were able to scrape together two runs.”
Sanford pitcher Bennie Sanchez (SCAD) got the start after a last minute scratch and struck out three in four innings pitched. Patrick Hicks (Dallas Baptist) started on the mound for Leesburg and pitched six innings, giving up three runs on five hits.
“Bennie did a great job, especially being thrown into it tonight with the late scratch. To go out 15 minutes before game time and have to get everything going, he gave a really good effort tonight,” said Piercefield.
After Jacob Tillotson (Santa Fe) plated Christian Coburn (College of Central FL) for the game’s first run, Sanford responded with Alex Mendez (South Florida) and Ryan Brnovich (Saint Leo) crossing home on TJ Gavlik (North Florida) and Ian MacGeorge (Embry-Riddle) RBIs, respectively, to make it a 2-1 ballgame.
The Lightning (20-9) broke the game open in the third with an offensive rally, in which just one player did not make a plate appearance. Tillotson hit a two-RBI single to score Troy Drummond (Delaware State) and Coburn. Hunter Mayfield (Rollins College) hit a sacrifice fly to score Mike Albaladejo (Florida Atlantic), and Chase Durham (Howard College) hit a single to plate Tillotson.
Thomas Sicking (Texas Pan-American) scored on an Eric Sams (Indian River State College) single in the fourth to give Leesburg a 6-2 lead.
“The pitching staff did a great job minimizing,” Piercefield said. “In the fourth, they had bases loaded, nobody out, and escaped with allowing only one run.”
Gavlik notched the first putout of the inning with a perfect throw to catcher Kyle Foti (Flagler) to cut Drummond down at the plate. A grounder to MacGeorge at first and a strikeout ended the threat.
The River Rats cut the lead by one in the fifth after Johnny Mazur (Florida Tech) scored on a Mendez fielder’s choice, making it 6-3.
Mayfield scored for Leesburg in the seventh, but the Rats didn’t quit and scored two of their own in the bottom half of the frame to make it 7-5.
“Our guys don’t believe in the record. A lot of teams could shut it down and pack it up for the summer, but our guys play every inning as if it was the last inning of the World Series. They give a tremendous effort every day, every game, every pitch and that’s all you can ask for as a coach,” Piercefield added.
Mazur was first across the plate on a Mendez sacrifice fly followed by Dominic Attanasio (Clemson), who scored on a Brnovich single.
Leesburg scored one more in the ninth when Tillotson came home on a wild pitch.
Sanford responded once more with a second run from Mendez on a second RBI single from Gavlik, but the rally came up short.
The River Rats begin a three-game road skid with a Tuesday (July 19) game against Winter Park at Alfond Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 11 a.m.
Neil Tredray (Valencia College)