sfoggi posted on July 19, 2011 21:17
WINTER PARK, Fla. (July 19, 2011) – The Sanford River Rats lost an 8-4 contest against the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs at Alfond Stadium Tuesday afternoon for their fourth consecutive loss.
The game began at 11 a.m. as an outing for the YMCA summer camp kids to get a chance to watch America’s favorite pastime.
“It was a great atmosphere today with all the campers out to watch us play,” River Rats Head Coach Stephen Piercefield said. “We’ve got a field, we’ve got two teams, and we’ve got sunlight. That’s all we ever ask for, whenever we start.”
Winter Park (18-8-1) opened the scoring with a solo home run from B.J. Zimmerman (State College of Florida) in the bottom of the second, but Sanford responded ably with a big third inning.
“We came out early and were able to climb to a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the third,” Piercefield said. “We started to really get things going, but we weren’t able to cash in some runs when we had some good opportunities later.”
Alex Mendez (South Florida) collected an RBI for a single to score Wesley Sargent (Florida Gulf Coast) for Sanford’s first run of the game. Dominic Attanasio (Clemson) scored on a fielder’s choice before Mendez came home on a wild pitch for the 3-1 Sanford lead.
Michael Danner (Polk State College) notched another run for Winter Park in the home half of the third and Dustin Demuth (Indiana University) scored on a single from Alex Cruz (Georgia Tech) in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game, 3-3.
New River Rat Brett Allen (Embry-Riddle) came up in relief with the bases loaded for his first appearance, and limited the Dawgs to two runs from Ryne Knuth (Polk State College) and Michael Reed (Auburn University) to make it 5-3.
“Brett did everything we could’ve asked for,” Piercefield said. “He came into a bases-loaded situation, which is never easy, and got us out of it and kept us in the game, then put up a zero in his next inning. We’re hoping he can be another key part of this bullpen.”
Sanford (9-18-1) scored their final run in the sixth when Winter Park pitcher Stephen Holden issued an RBI walk to Attanasio to send Ryan Woodrey (Nova Southeastern) home.
Winter Park put up three in the seventh as Brad Hutton (Ohio State), Ruben Marrero (Cowley College), and Zimmerman scored. Demuth and Cruz notched RBIs, as did Zimmerman.
Despite the rough patch, Piercefield remains determined.
“We’re going to show up and continue to compete,” he said. “That’s all I can ask for and that’s all these guys keep doing, showing up ready to go. Sooner or later, the baseball gods will even it out for us.”
Sanford’s next game is against the Orlando Freedom (11-18) at Orel Hershiser Field on Wednesday (July 20) at the First Academy. First pitch is slated for 7 p.m.
Neil Tredray (Valencia College)