Leesburg, FL – One play, maybe two. That’s how close the Leesburg Lightning were to securing a spot in the Florida League championship on Friday night. A bittersweet 7-6 loss, but a loss nonetheless, ended the season for the Lightning, who should no doubt be proud of their effort this season.

Leesburg Head Coach Rich Billings was proud of his team, who he said proved they could be special early on in the season. “It was pretty early on,” Coach Billings said of when he realized the enormous potential that his team possessed. “We were putting up a lot of runs, guys were pitching well and we were doing a lot of things really well. I knew we had a special team and a special group of guys.”

Winter Park took an early 1-0 lead after starting pitcher Hunter Caudelle (Georgia Gwinnett) hit the first batter he saw, Robert Scott (Lake Sumter CC), to start the game. After Scott stole second and advanced to third on a Chandler Roberson (UCF) infield single, Tyler Osik (UCF) drove him in with...

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Winter Park, FL - 11. That's the number of runners that the Leesburg Lightning left on base in their Game 2 loss to the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs on Thursday night. Only two runs crossed the plate for the visiting Lightning despite putting up 12 hits as they lost to the fourth-seeded Diamond Dawgs, 3-2.

Winter Park got all three of their runs in separate innings, starting with a solo home run by center fielder Tyler Osik (UCF) in the bottom of the first off of Lightning starter Ethan Chavis (NC A&T).

Chandler Robertson (UCF) scored on an RBI groundout in the fourth inning and again in the sixth inning on a questionable defensive interference call. Chavis left the game after five innings with three runs allowed on three hits and three walks. Those three hits, a home run and two singles, turned out to be the only hits for Winter Park as they were out-hit by the Lightning, 12-3.

After the game, Lightning Head Coach Rich Billings said that his team's discipline at the plate was...

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Leesburg, FL – On fire does not even begin to describe Joshua Shapiro (Marshall) tonight. The southpaw from Columbus, Ohio threw a complete game, two-hit shutout when his team needed it most to propel the Leesburg Lightning to a 1-0 series lead over the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs.

The Diamond Dawgs could only manage one hit off of Shapiro through the first eight innings, but Leesburg also struggled, only racking up six hits in the game.

The first five innings flew by with both Shapiro and Winter Park JP Williams (Eastern Florida State College) dealing their best stuff right off the bat.

The Lightning finally broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the sixth inning after singles from Wes Weeks (North Florida) and Tanner May (North Florida) put two runners on with only one out, and Jose Crisostomo (Miami Dade) drew a walk to load the bases. Frank Niemann (Tulane) drew another walk to force Weeks across the plate, but Diamond Dawgs reliever Maxwell Clark (Undecided) got Matthew...

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Leesburg, FL - Best record in the Florida Collegiate Summer League, the top seed in the playoffs, home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and the longest winning streak in league history. The Leesburg Lightning are champions of the regular season after a 4-3 week, but all of the accolades listed above will mean a whole lot more if they can top it all off with a league championship, according to Head Coach Rich Billings.

Weekly Team Leaders

(These numbers only reflect players' performances throughout the past week, not the entire season)

• Batting Avg: Jay Prather - 0.400 (4th in the FCSL)
• Hits: Jay Prather - 10 (1st in the FCSL)
• Runs: Luke Brown - 7 (1st in the FCSL)
• RBIs: Matthew Wiseman - 7 (1st in the FCSL)
• HRs: Matthew Wiseman - 1 (1st in the FCSL)
• SOs: Hunter Caudelle - 6 (2nd in the FCSL)
• Innings Pitched: Matthew Coles - 9.2 (1st in the FCSL)

Best Performances of the Week

7/23 vs Seminole County Scorpions - Frank Niemann and Matthew Coles

Two players in new...

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Leesburg, FL – The Leesburg Lightning (28-13) closed out the 2018 regular season with a win in game two of a doubleheader against the Sanford River Rats (18-20-1) after dropping the first game to the Rats.

Resilience. That’s what Lightning Head Coach Rich Billings said stuck out to him most about his team this season. “The second half (of the season) we had a ton of injuries, we had some guys leave but they battled through a lot of adversity and they still did pretty well even with all the adversity that they went through,” said Billings, who no doubt is proud of his team’s effort so far this summer. “Some guys stepped in and stepped up and kind of carried us through the second half of the season. It’s been awesome to watch that. The resiliency of this team has been very impressive.”

Game 1

The Lightning took an early lead, scoring in the first inning like they have many times this season. Luke Brown (Western Kentucky) and Tucker Rayburn (Florida A&M) sandwiched singles around a...

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