Leesburg Earns Spot In The Record Books With 8-2 Victory Over DeLand

DeLand, FL - The Leesburg Lightning (11-1) picked up their record-breaking 11th straight win of the season, an 8-2 win over the DeLand Suns (7-7). The Lightning, who broke the all-time team record for longest winning streak with the win, were the beneficiaries of eight errors in the field by DeLand, leading to seven unearned runs.

Leesburg lived up to their reputation, jumping on the scoreboard early in the game. They took a 2-0 lead in the second inning thanks to an RBI single from Florida League player of the week Jose Crisostomo (Miami Dade) that scored Sean Mootrey (Georgia Gwinnett) and Ja'Kobi Dasher (Flagler)

DeLand answered back in the bottom of the second after Brayden Sisson (Kentucky Wesleyan) walked and later scored on a single by second baseman Geordon Blanton (Marshall). DeLand added another run in the third inning to tie the game up at two when Sisson grounded into a fielder's choice, scoring Jarrett Backus (Lake Sumter CC) from third. Lightning second baseman Jake Matulia (Flagler) made a heads-up play at second after he fielded the ground ball. He initially looked like was going to throw home in an attempt to get the runner out and save the run, but ultimately opted to get the easy out at first instead. Backus had gotten a good jump on the pitch, and he likely would have beat the throw home.

The top of the fifth inning proved to be the deciding factor after the Lightning put up four runs on three hits and five DeLand errors. With two outs in the inning and Javeon Cody (Alvin CC) up to bat, Jake Matulia made the play of the game, nay, play of the week, stealing home and sparking a two-out rally for the visiting side. Lightning head coach Rich Billings said the play was all Matulia's idea. "That was Jake's call. He wanted a pitch to see how good of a jump he could get and I told him to say yes to me if he could get it and he gave me the yes so I gave the sign to Javeon and it was a great baseball play," Billings explained. "Jake did an awesome job with it and that was all him." Leesburg went on to score three more runs in the frame, all of them unearned.

An RBI double by Matulia and another heads-up baserunning play by the Flagler product led to two more Leesburg runs in the sixth inning, sealing the win for the first-place Lightning. Relievers Matthew Coles (Florida Tech), Jaylin Turner (Alvin CC), Kevin Barham (Undecided) and Louis Davenport (Pensacola State) combined to pitch four hitless innings to close out the road win for the Lightning. After the game, coach Billings said that his team understands that they can't expect their opponents to make eight errors every game, but that he was grateful for the gifted runs. "Every game is different. You come out and you play the game, you don't ever play the opponent. Our goal is always to come out and play hard no matter what," Billings said. "We'll obviously take any runs that the other team wants to give us but we know that we're going to have to earn them at some point as well."

Despite their defensive struggles, the Suns have been Leesburg's toughest competition this season, as three of their five matchups have been decided by two runs or less. DeLand, who currently sits in second place, also gave the Lightning their only loss of the season on opening night in a 17-11 shootout. "They've hit when they needed to and they get big hits with runners in scoring position. They get a lot of lead-off guys on as well," said Billings when asked about what DeLand does well that's enabled them to give the Lightning such a hard time. "That's probably the biggest key to us being successful against them, trying to keep that lead-off hitter off base because they run well too."

The first-place Lightning will play the Suns again on Wednesday night at Pat Thomas Stadium in Leesburg. That game will be the last meeting between the two teams until a three-game series beginning on July 18th.

Matt Holzapfel (Elon University)

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