Official Website of the 2009 FCSL Champions

Lightning Surrender Ten Runs in Loss to Diamond Dawgs

Saturday, July 24, 2010 11:52pm

“Jekyll and Hyde team.”  This is the description that Coach Viola used to describe how the Lightning have been playing.  One night, the Lightning will play outstanding baseball, playing stellar defense, solid pitching, and boasting clutch offense.  The very next night, the Lightning will look like a completely different team, racking up errors and making mental mistakes.  In Saturday’s home game against the first place Winter Park Diamond Dawgs, the Lightning were the latter, committing four errors, giving up six free passes, and three unearned runs.  The Lightning were stride for stride with the Diamond Dawgs up until the fifth inning.  From there, things fell apart for the Lightning, dropping their ninth game to the Diamond Dawgs on the season by a score of 10-6.

Nic Kovacs (Lake Sumter CC) got the nod for the Lightning, going five innings, giving up four runs, only two earned, on six hits.  The Diamond Dawgs would put their first run on the board in the first inning.  Brad Dantzler (State College of Florida) would rope a single to right field with one out, and in attempting to stretch it to a double, met the strong arm of Robert Beary (South Carolina) who threw a strike to second to gun out Dantzler.  Samuel Kimmel (Indian River State College) reached base on a great bunt down the third baseline.  Kovacs would walk the next batter and then Brad Hutton (Ohio State) collected the RBI on a single to left field.  Dantzler reached base four times in the game, going 2-for-4 at the plate and scoring three runs.  Kimmel also reached base four times, going 3-for-4 at the plate and also scoring three runs.  Hutton collected two RBI’s on the night and also scored a run himself; quite easy to say that the middle of the order for the Diamond Dawgs got the best of the Lightning pitching staff.

 The Lightning would score one run in the first inning to tie the ballgame, Thomas Sicking (South Florida CC) walking with one out to start the inning.  Sicking later scored on an RBI single by Michael Gonzalez (East Tennessee State).  Unfortunately for the Lightning, they left the bases loaded in the first inning.  The Lightning would once again find themselves in a similar scenario in the fourth, when down 2-3, would score the tying run on three hits including a double by Alex Hudak (Florida Atlantic).  With a chance to break open the game and gain their first lead, the Lightning would once more strand three runners.

The Diamond Dawgs would score one more run in the fifth to regain the lead, and then break open the score in the seventh, scoring four runs on three hits, two walks, and a huge error, where the Lightning would throw the ball all over the diamond, unable to leash the Diamond Dawgs who were running wild around the bases.

In an attempt to recover, the Lightning would tack on two runs in the eighth and one more in the ninth.  But the hole was too large, the Lightning giving up two runs in the top of the ninth to the Diamond Dawgs, losing their twenty-second game of the season.

The Lightning look to rebound against the Orlando Mavericks on Sunday at Pat Thomas Stadium at 7:00PM.

 

Trey Garant (University of Michigan)