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Lightning Tie For First With Win Over Sanford

Saturday, July 16, 2011 10:06pm

                After splitting Friday’s doubleheader, the Lightning came into the game looking to win one for their skipper, Dave Therneau, who was suspended after Friday’s fiasco. They did just that with a big 4-2 win over Sanford.

Both starting pitchers threw gems Saturday night. They each took different routes of getting there, but both kept their teams in the game for the majority of Saturday night’s contest.

                Leesburg starter Dylan Hathcock earned himself a spot on the All-Star roster earlier this week with a stellar 3-1 record and an ERA that hovered just over 2. Against Sanford, Hathcock assaulted the strike zone with a barrage of pitches that had the Sanford bats acting like a windmill early in the game. Of the first ten outs the River Rats recorded, nine were strikeouts courtesy of Hathcock. He finished the game with ten, a season high for him. The paradox of getting ten strikeouts is that you need a vast quantity of pitches to accomplish that task and thus, Hathcock only lasted into the sixth inning, being pulled after hitting his pitch limit. He left the game having given up only a handful of hits and two runs.

                “I was using two different arm slots that seemed to be working,” said Hathcock of his ten strikeouts. “I just wish I could have gone longer.”

                “We work on damage control and I thought (Hathcock) did an incredible job of that tonight,” said Pitching Coach Jon Bolt. “He’s usually a pitch to contact kind of guy, but we’ll take the strikeouts.”

Sanford starter Ray Hanson took a different pitching method to the mound. He was able to work a little bit quicker than Hathcock and settled down after giving up two runs in the first inning. Despite the constant contact by the Lightning bats, they couldn’t put together a rally and Hanson was able to work into the eighth inning.

                The score remained 2-2 heading into the eighth. Jacob Tillotson singled to right field, ending Hanson’s night with no outs. Mike Albaladejo laid down a perfect bunt down the as it looked like he was racing the ball down the first base line. He beat out an errant throw from the pitcher, but the blunder allowed Tillotson to advance to third base. With runners on the corners, a wild pitch had Tillotson dashing home and a close play had everyone at Pat Thomas holding their breath. But the umpire signaled safe and the crowd erupted as the Lightning took a 3-2 lead.

                                “The mood on this team is all positive, it’s all up tempo,” said Albaladejo, who’s base hit in the eighth ended up scoring the winning run. “We had a sense of energy especially after what happened last night.”

An intentional walk to Chase Durham loaded the bases and the following walk to the newest member of the team John Beary brought home another run and the Lightning turned the ball over to Nick Palmer to close the door and he did just that picking up his first save of the season.

With Winter Park being rained out on Saturday, the Lightning now take a slim lead atop the Florida League standings.

It will be a rematch on Sunday as Leesburg heads to Sanford Memorial Stadium to battle the River Rats at 5:00.

By: Nick Beardi (Medaille College)