sfoggi posted on July 24, 2011 19:49
DELAND, Fla. (July 24, 2011) - With the Leesburg Lightning leading the Florida Collegiate League standings by half game over Winter Park heading into Sunday, it left eight games remaining in the regular season schedule.
Due to the rained out games earlier in the season, the League added some makeup games to the final week of the schedule that gave the Lightning two extra games.
The first of these two games was played Sunday afternoon against the Suns at Conrad Park in DeLand. A little over an hour down the turnpike, Winter Park was battling Orlando as Leesburg was hoping for a Freedom win on top of a win of their own to give themselves some separation from the Diamond Dawgs before their showdown on Monday night.
Nic Kovacs (Lake Sumter CC) took the mound and was rippling with confidence after winning his last two starts, both against Orlando. There had been speculation that the Lightning’s ace might be saved for Monday night, but with eight games left, every game is vital. Kovacs carried over his recent success into Sunday’s game, dominating the Suns single handedly throughout the game.
DeLand also had superb pitching out of starter Montana DuRapau (Bethune-Cookman), who threw six scoreless innings. He struck out five and only allowed two hits.
Both offenses were kept at bay for the entirety of the game and heading into the eighth inning, the game was scoreless.
Shortstop Jacob Tillotson (Florida) came up to bat with no one on and one out and belted a double to put him in scoring position. From there, Mike Albaladejo (Florida Atlantic) was intentionally walked and the Suns made a pitching change but it all for not. A Chase Durham (Howard College) single a few batters later with the bases loaded finally broke the tie and the Lightning took a 1-0 lead.
This would be all that Nic Kovacs would need. As effective as he’s been for Leesburg in his last few starts, nothing compared to the gem he pitched Sunday afternoon. Kovacs would go the distance, pitching a complete game shutout. He allowed six base runners the entire game and walked only one while striking out five. If anyone questioned whether Kovacs was the real deal, they’re not anymore.
Head Coach Dave Therneau did an incredible job of keeping faith in his starter. When speedy Stephen Bellantoni (USC-Aiken) reached to lead off the home half of the eighth, Kovacs remained on the mound. And when Bellantoni got to third base and the Suns looked like they might tie the game, Kovacs induced a groundball to end the inning. He headed back to the mound in the ninth and by that time, had the faith of the entire team. He allowed his only walk of the game to the second to the last batter of the game, putting the tying run on base, but three pitches later, the game was over. Kovacs showed unbelievable determination from start to finish and picked up his team-leading fifth win courtesy of his 101 pitch gem.
The final three home games for the Lightning are all against Winter Park and the first is set for Monday night. It’s unclear as of now who will take the mound tomorrow for Leesburg, but all signs point to Dylan Ortega (Brevard CC). The showdown gets under way at 7:00 p.m. at Pat Thomas Stadium.
Nick Beardi (Medaille College)