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Bullpen Holds Off Suns; Lightning Win 5-4

Friday, July 22, 2011 10:00pm

                The Lightning earned a huge victory Friday night at home, holding off the DeLand Suns in a 5-4 win.

Coach Therneau was absent once again as James Scrubbs and Jon Bolt once again assumed coaching duties. The team was looking for a rebound after losing to a determined but last place Winter Haven on Wednesday night.

                The Lightning got things started early when singles by Jacob Tillotson and Mike Albaladejo eventually led to two Leesburg runs.

                The Suns would tie the game in the third off a double by right fielder Bryan Adamatz.

                Lightning starter Dylan Hathcock, coming off a win in which he had a season high ten strikeouts had an uncharacteristically mediocre start, but kept his team in the game and the team still picked up the big win. He surrendered one more run in the fourth inning before being pulled in the fifth leaving runners on the corners for red hot reliever David Lucroy.

                Lucroy got a big looking strikeout with the bases loaded that ended the DeLand threat and kept the deficit to just one run.

                As they have all season though, the Lightning would storm back to take the lead in the fifth inning. After issuing walks to Albaladejo and Hunter Mayfield, the Lightning had two on when Chase Durham stepped to the plate and hit a hard grounder to the third baseman who bobbled the ball and all three runners were safe. Leesburg looked to be in business with the bases loaded but a strikeout threatened to leave all three runners where they were until third baseman Tyler Kellmann stepped to the dish. Kellmann, who had been struggling with the bat took the first pitch he saw up the middle for a two run single and the Lightning took a one run lead.

                “We battled all night,” said Coach Scrubbs. “We’ve battled all season and had a few two out hits that really helped.”

                The Suns would once again tie the game again in the sixth inning but the tie wouldn’t last long as the resilient Lightning, perhaps looking to make a statement in these final games of the regular season took back the lead in the seventh inning.

                With a runner on first, the always dangerous Mike Albaladejo came to the plate and hit a double to left centerfield to make it a 5-4 game in favor of Leesburg.

                From there, the Leesburg relievers dominated the game. Kory Brooker came into the game in the seventh inning and had a rare and coveted three pitch, three out inning. If you blinked you may have missed the action, but on three pitches Brooker induced two groundouts to Tom Sicking and a fly out to Chase Durham. He also held the Suns scoreless in the eighth and Max Rusch, as always, shut the door in the ninth.

                “I felt good out there,” said Brooker. “I wouldn’t be able to do anything without my defense behind me and they’ve been consistent all year.” Brooker acknowledged the consistency runs through the whole team and has been the cause of their great play this season.

                “The defense was great and we had some good pitching from our relievers at the end,” said Coach Scrubbs.

Makeup games have been scheduled for Sunday in DeLand and Monday night at home against Winter Park. With the adapted schedule, Leesburg plays their final three home games against the Diamond Dawgs in what will be the three biggest games of the season.

                The Lightning play the Loggerheads at home Saturday night at 7:00 at pat Thomas Stadium.

By: Nick Beardi (Medaille College)