Official Website of the 2009 FCSL Champions

Lightning Shutout River Rats in First Game of Best of Three Series

Monday, August 2, 2010 10:18am

In a game with only nine total hits, both the Lightning and River Rats sported incredible pitching.  The Lightning were held to only two hits on Sunday night’s playoff game, both hits coming in the second inning.  The River Rats scattered seven hits across the board but the Lightning kept the River Rats off the scoreboard, throwing up nine goose-eggs for the Sanford home team.  The Lightning on the other hand, picked up three unearned runs on several errors made by the River Rats giving the Lightning a 3-0 victory, putting the Lightning one win away from the Championship Game at Tropicana Field.

Robert Lake (Winthrop) started the game for the Lightning, and was phenomenal through his 6.1 innings of work.  Lake would give up only five hits and record eight strikeouts.  At one point in the game, Lake had struck out six of seven batters, striking out the side in the fifth.  His ability to pound the strike zone allowed him to work batters into tough hitting counts, setting them up to chase high fast balls.  “Location,” Lake said was the key, “I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to throw the ball hard with the ball being wet and the mound being wet.  I had to concentrate on location, and I did that and good things happened.”  The game had been on an hour and a half storm delay, and with a wet field, Lake took the approach of location, proving to be successful.

The Lightning provided run support for Lake in the second inning, when Michael Gonzalez (East Tennessee State) led off the inning with an infield single.  Danny Baatz (UNC Asheville) then laid down a bunt to move Gonzalez over, and in an attempt to force out Gonzalez at second, the Rats pitcher would lose grip of the slippery ball, sending it into center field, Gonzalez able to advance to third with Baatz safely standing on first.  Baatz then stole second base.  With runners in scoring position, Mark Darlington (West Virginia Wesleyan) hit a deep sacrifice fly to score Gonzalez.  Baatz advanced to third base on a deep fly by Nick DelGuidice (Florida Atlantic), and with two outs, Michael Albaladejo (Florida Atlantic) came up with a clutch single threw the left side of the infield to score Baatz.

The Lightning pitching staff fanned eleven batters altogether, middle reliever Scott Robinson (Lake Sumter CC) picking up one in his 1.2 innings and closer Dylan Ortega (Brevard CC) fanning two in the ninth.  Ortega picked up the save. 

The Lightning plated their final run of the evening in the eighth inning, DelGuidice drawing a leadoff walk and advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt by Albaladejo.  After a strikeout, DelGuidice stood on second base with two outs, Matt Pierpont (Winthrop) stepping to the plate.  Pierpont would hit a high pop up to the first baseman, but unable to settle under it, the ball would fall, a costly error.  DelGuidice showed great hustle on the play, running hard on the typically routine out to score the run.

“Pitching and defense wins,” Coach Viola said of his team’s victory.  As for what the Lightning can take from the first game as they look to close out the series at home on Monday, Viola said “Confidence.”  After struggling throughout the season against the River Rats, the Lightning proved they can beat Sanford, a huge confidence boost heading into game two of a best of three series. 

The Lightning look to end the series Monday night at home against the River Rats at Pat Thomas Stadium at 7:00PM.  One more win will put the Lightning into the championship game at Tropicana Field.

Trey Garant (University of Michigan)