sfoggi posted on July 26, 2011 21:37
SANFORD, Fla. (July 26, 2011) – The Sanford River Rats lost a 7-3 contest to the DeLand Suns at Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium Tuesday night. The loss moves Sanford even with Orlando and Winter Haven at 11.5 games behind Leesburg, but keeps the Rats just above the Loggerheads in win percentage.
“We came out and played a solid game. In the game of baseball, there’s a play here or there that breaks the game, and we were unfortunate that way and couldn’t capitalize in a couple of spots. But overall, I thought we were solid,” River Rats Head Coach Stephen Piercefield said.
The Suns (19-17) broke the game open in the seventh inning, scoring three runs before tacking on an insurance run in the eighth. Neither starter - Sanford’s Brandon Cowan (Lincoln Memorial) or DeLand’s Chad Rood (Stetson) - figured in the decision. Eric Green (Embry-Riddle) earned the win and Adam Albers (Saint Leo University) took the loss.
“Overall, our pitching staff did a good job of competing and that’s all you can really ask for. We’ve asked those guys to do a lot this summer and they’ve only exceeded expectations,” Piercefield said.
Stephen Bellantoni (USC-Aiken) led off for DeLand with a single in the first before stealing second and third, then scoring on a catcher’s error.
The Rats (12-21) responded immediately with Ryan Brnovich (Saint Leo University) getting his sixth straight hit in two games before coming home on an Ian MacGeorge (Embry-Riddle) sacrifice fly to right field. They continued hot hitting into the second with Devon Hellett (Flagler) getting his first extra-bases hit as a River Rat: a triple that seemed to get stuck in the warning track near the right foul pole. Kyle Foti (Nova Southeastern) singled to move Hellett the last 90 feet to home and made it a 2-1 game.
Bellantoni started the Suns’ half of the third with another single but didn’t need to steal any bases as Bryan Adametz (Palm Beach State) lifted a home run over the left center wall to give DeLand a 3-2 lead.
Sanford fought back yet again in the bottom of the third when Alex Mendez (South Florida) doubled to start the inning. Brnovich made it seven straight hits with a single before James Ramsay (South Florida) hit a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Mendez. Brnovich made it to third and MacGeorge to second but no further runs were scored.
“Our approach didn’t change. The results may have changed, though, as you see in the box score,” Piercefield said.
In fact, no runs were scored by either team until that disastrous seventh inning. Austen Barber (Winthrop) reached first on a fielder’s choice, Aaron Silbar (Columbia University) singled, and Bellantoni hit a third single to load the bases. Adametz recorded a second RBI when he singled to plate Barber. Kevin Lindheim (Stetson) hit a deep single that scored Silbar and Bellantoni to make it 6-3.
Jairo Acevedo (Bethune Cookman) hit a double that just hooked fair in the eighth and Silbar singled to plate him and capped the scoring at 7-3.
Any hope of a Rats rally died in the eighth as they ran into the buzz saw of Casey Mullholland (Ole Miss). Mullholland ruthlessly struck out the side. Not content to add three strikeouts, Mullholland continued the assault into the ninth, striking out the next two Rats batters for good measure.
“Their pitchers did a phenomenal job keeping us off balance and their bullpen did a tremendous job. Overall, their staff was superb in limiting our chances,” Piercefield said.
Sanford will host the Leesburg Lightning (25-11) for the final time Wednesday night at Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium. First pitch is slated for 7 p.m. Ryan Heinz (George Washington) is the probable Sanford starter.
Neil Tredray (Valencia College)