Official Website of the 2009 FCSL Champions

Lightning Strikes Mavs Again

Thursday, June 18, 2009 5:26am

By: Laura Kubitz

LEESBURG-The Leesburg Lightning took down the Clermont Mavericks on Wednesday, 13-6, to claim their fourth win in a row.

Kyle Wahl (1-1) (Southern) got the win pitching five innings and striking out seven. Alan Oaks (Univ. of Michigan) went three-for-five with two doubles and one RBI.

One of those RBIs came in the sixth inning when the Lightning took over the scoreboard, when the Lightning recorded eight runs to give themselves an
11-2 advantage.

Travis Howard's (USC-Aiken) walk turned into an RBI after Oak's double.

"Lead-off walks usually cause a lot of big innings," said Lightning manager Frank Viola.

Alex Hudek (Stetson) delivered a triple to score Trae Gore (Florida Southern) and Oaks. The rally continued with a sacrifice fly by Mark Stewart (SCAD) scoring Mike Albaladejo (Florida Atlantic). Trace Venegas (Santa Fe) doubled and plated on Michael Dufek's triple. Howard came up to the plate for the second time in the sixth to single and scored on an error.

With the Lightning up by nine, Viola replaced reliever Eric Doty (Polk CC) with Brett Blaise (Pearl River CC) in the eighth inning. Blaise gave up four runs in a Mavericks rally, leaving the score 11-6.

"I thought it was great timing to get Brett some time on the mound," Viola said. "I put him in the heat a little bit. I think it might have been better on the road cause you have a lot of family and friends here. He got his feet wet and I think you are going to see a much better Brett Blaise."

The Lightning answered back in the eighth inning. Stewart's sacrifice fly to right field scored Gore and Oaks to put up two insurance runs.

The Lightning entered the game as the top-hitting team in the Florida Collegiate Summer League and maintained their torrid hitting with each
player recording at least one hit.

"We are getting better and better with the bat," Viola said. "This is the best hitting team I have seen in a long time. Tony is doing a great job
with them."

The Lightning will take on the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs at 7 p.m. today at Alfond Stadium/Harper-Sheperd Field at Rollins College.