sfoggi posted on July 27, 2011 21:18
SANFORD, Fla. (July 27, 2011) – The Sanford River Rats defeated the Leesburg Lightning 5-2 at Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium Wednesday night. The win puts Sanford a game ahead of Winter Haven (12-22) in the standings in the last week of the season.
“It starts and stops with pitching, and our staff did a great job tonight minimizing and making pitches when they needed to,” River Rats Head Coach Stephen Piercefield said. “Any time you have a chance to win a game at home with our fans is always great.”
Both pitchers were great, but Leesburg’s Kurtis Gens (Seminole State College) was perfect, into the fifth at least. For four straight innings, the Rats fell 1-2-3 without anyone getting on base. Kyle Foti (Nova Southeastern) took a walk in the fifth to break up the perfect game bid.
Ryan Heinz (George Washington) got the start for Sanford and although he wasn’t perfect, he pitched four shutout innings, struck out four, and gave up just one run. Heinz gave the Lightning an idea of what was to come in the first when, after Mike Albaladejo (Florida Atlantic) made it to third, he struck out the next two batters to close the door on the inning.
“Ryan’s a guy who pitches his way in and out of trouble and doesn’t really focus on what the runners are doing behind him. He concentrates on the task at hand and is able to bear down and get after the guys at the plate which really set the tone early for us, especially in the first,” Piercefield said.
The Lightning (25-12) struck first in the top of the fifth. Troy Drummond (Delaware State) took a walk before stealing second. Nick Octavi (Hartford CC), pinch-hitting, socked a double to left field to score Drummond.
Leesburg tacked on a second run in the sixth as Hunter Mayfield (Rollins) singled to get on base and eventually came around on a Chase Durham (Howard College) groundout for a 2-0 lead.
“Their guy did a tremendous job on the mound,” Piercefield said. “He was perfect into the fifth, so it was a matter of sticking to our approach, which is to string quality at-bats together and we were able to do that, get to the next guy, and be in a position to capitalize on anything that was presented to us.”
The Rats (13-21-1) capitalized in the home half of the sixth. Austin Liput (USC-Upstate) led off with a double to end Gens’ no-hitter bid and Blake Boyd (Nova Southeastern) walked. Alex Mendez (South Florida) singled and Liput was able to come home on a pitcher’s error that also moved Boyd to third.
Ryan Brnovich (Saint Leo University) hit a sacrifice fly to score Boyd. Mendez stole second and moved to third on a James Ramsay (South Florida) grounder to first. Ian MacGeorge (Embry-Riddle) singled to plate Mendez for the go-ahead run.
TJ Gavlik (North Florida) swung on the first pitch he saw and lifted what looked like an easy pop-up to the shortstop, who dropped the ball. A wild pitch moved MacGeorge to third and Gavlik to second before a balk sent MacGeorge home for a 4-2 lead.
Brnovich singled in the eighth and scored on a Gavlik sacrifice fly to center to end the scoring at 5-4. A fly ball to MacGeorge in left field and two Adam Maxon (Jacksonville) strikeouts ended the ninth and the game.
The River Rats hit the road for their next game against the DeLand Suns (20-17) at Conrad Park Thursday (July 28) night. First pitch is slated for 7 p.m. Will the momentum from Wednesday’s win carry over?
“As a coach you always hope so. We’ve been sticking to our approach the entire season, haven’t wavered from it yet not even for one game. We’re one of those teams that just keeps grinding every single day,” Piercefield added.
Neil Tredray (Valencia College)