Official Website of the 2009 FCSL Champions

Lightning Win Third Straight With Win Over Mavericks

Sunday, June 27, 2010 11:51am

Like Mark Darlington (West Virginia Wesleyan) said after Friday night’s win against the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs, “Losing is contagious just like winning is contagious.”  The Lightning have discovered that contagious winning feeling, winning their third straight game Saturday night against the Orlando Mavericks.  Pitching and defense were a vital part of the success on the diamond, as the offensive showing from both sides was relatively small, the game ending in favor of the Lightning 4-3 with a combined nine hits between the two squads.

Kyle Wahl (Southern University) started the game for the Lightning, going six innings and giving up only two runs.  Wahl was flawless through the first four and two-thirds innings, keeping the Mavericks hitless until Patrick Roedel (Lynn) ended the no-hit showing with a ground ball up the middle for a single.  The Mavericks would end up tallying only three hits off of Wahl, all singles and one being a suicide squeeze laid perfectly down the third base line.  The Mavericks would only be able to muster up one more single the rest of the game. 

The Lightning jumped off to an early lead in Saturday night’s contest with Danny Baatz (UNC Asheville) starting the first inning off with a walk.  Second batter Michael Albaladejo (Florida Atlantic) would follow up with a single through the right side of the infield.  The third batter to the plate, Darlington, would hit a ground ball to the first baseman who, instead of tagging first base, tried to turn a double play and threw the ball over the shortstop cover second, allowing Darlington to reach on an error and Baatz to come around to score.  Albaladejo and Darlington would then advance to third and second respectively on a wild pitch, setting up Alex Hudak (Florida Atlantic) for the infield groundout RBI. 

The Lightning then struck again in the fourth and fifth innings, scoring one run off of two hits in the fourth inning by shortstop Nick DelGuidice (Florida Atlantic) and third baseman Nick Smelser (Midland).  In the fifth inning, the Lightning would score their final run, starting with Albaladejo’s single up the middle.  On Albaladejo’s single, the Mavericks shortstop was able to reach the ball, but in an attempt to throw him out at first, made a hurried throw that would get passed the first baseman and allow Albaladejo to advance to second base.  He would score later off of Matt Pierpont’s (Winthrop) infield single.  The Lightning would load the bases in the fifth with two outs, drawing two walks to add onto Pierpont’s single, but would leave all three men on base.

As stated above, the Mavericks would put two runs on the board in the sixth inning on an error, a base hit, and a brilliantly played suicide squeeze with two outs.  In the top of the seventh inning, the Mavericks would tack on one more run with two walks and an infield ground out which resulted in an RBI.  From there, both teams would go quietly in the game, resulting in Wahl’s second win of the season.

 “It was another good overall team effort,” Coach Viola said of his team’s third consecutive win. “I like what I see.”  Coach Viola has been very pleased with the way his team has bounced back after a rough start to the season, and now on a three game winning streak, will head into Sunday with a record of 8-12 to face the Sanford River Rats at Pat Thomas Stadium in a double header that starts at 4:30PM.

Trey Garant (University of Michigan)