Official Website of the 2009 FCSL Champions

Lightning Send Nine to All-Star Game

Monday, July 11, 2011 10:17am

The annual All-Star Game festivities for the Florida Collegiate Summer League will take place at Sanford Memorial Stadium Tuesday and the Leesburg Lightning find themselves well represented.

The League will be divided into North and South squads based on geography and Leesburg will join DeLand and Sanford as the three North teams. Winter Park, Orlando and Winter Haven make up the South squad.

Of the 22 players on the North team, nine are from Leesburg. “We don’t get to vote for our own players,” said Coach Dave Therneau. “For nine of our guys to be selected is a testament to what the League thinks of our guys.”

Of those nine players, five are pitchers. Starters Nic Kovacs, Dylan Ortega and Dylan Hathcock have combined for five wins and have been an awesome 1-2-3 punch on the mound. Kovacs was the opening Day starter and has gone 2-1 in 29.1 innings pitched, amassing 26 strikeouts and has an astounding 13:1 strikeout to walk ratio. Ortega also sits at 2-1 and has started all five games he’s pitched, recording a 2.52 ERA with 17 strikeouts. Hathcock has also started all five games that he’s pitched and has almost identical stats to Ortega with a slightly lower ERA of 2.08.

Along with the three starters is reliever Ethan Bader who leads the team with an unbelievable 29 strikeouts in just 15.1 innings pitched. He’s also not allowed an earned run yet this season. Closing out the honored Leesburg pitchers is closer Max Rusch who has arguably been the best pitcher in the entire league. He has a minute 1.72 ERA and in 12 appearances has shut the door on every opponent he’s faced compiling an imposing 3-0 record with four saves while only allowing seven hits and striking out 25. Bader and Rusch have been a big reason why Leesburg has been able to maintain leads this season.

Starting in the field for the North team will be hometown favorite Mike Albaladejo, who will be playing catcher along with shortstop Jacob Tillotson and third baseman Tom Sicking.

Playing in his third season in the FCSL, Albaladejo has been an inspiration to his teammates, playing both catcher and second base while batting .333 with 22 hits including nine runs and 15 walks. At press time, he has a remarkable .500 on base percentage

Shortstop Jacob Tillotson has more than made up for any defensive shortcomings with his work at the plate. Tillotson seems to always be on base and sits just below Albaladejo with an equally remarkable .482 OBP. Tillotson is and has been all season, in the top five in hitting all season with a .363 batting average with three doubles, a triple and 20 walks. He hit his first homerun of the season Saturday at Winter Haven.

Tom Sicking leads the entire league in hitting and has an astonishing .426 average with 26 hits including three doubles. All of this, he’s done hitting primarily out of the nine hole in the lineup.

Last but not least is Hunter Mayfield who has led the league in RBIs for a majority of the season with 20. He’s also played in every game and has played first, outfield but is primarily the team’s designated hitter. He has seven doubles, a triple and a homerun.

Coach Therneau has also been selected to head up the North team and is more than deserving of the honor. The skipper has his team on top of the standings and has the lowest team ERA and one of the top hitting squads in the league.

“When these guys play as well as they have been all summer, they put me in a position to coach this game,” said Therneau.

The All-Star game will be preceded by a Home Run Derby and Mike Miller and Chase Durham have been selected to represent the Lightning and hopefully bring the trophy back to Leesburg.

The game is at 7:00 with the Derby starting at 6:00.

By: Nick Beardi (Medaille College)