Leesburg Relinquishes Lead Late, Can't Complete Rally in 7-5 Loss

Orlando, Fla.- The Leesburg Lightning could not hold onto a slim lead going into Thursday night’s later innings, falling 7-5 to the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs at Bishop Moore High School.

The Lightning struggled to produce offense to start the night, with their first six batters striking out against the Diamond Dawgs’ starting pitcher, Dariel Fregio (Saint Leo). After Leesburg’s starter Blayne Huter (South Florida State) exited following just an inning of work, Matt Coles (Carson-Newman) threw an errant pitch that plated Peyton Carr (High Point). Coles pitched well, tossing four strong innings of three hit baseball, while punching out a pair. He allowed one other run to score in the fifth. 

Like they did against the Squeeze on Wednesday night, the Leesburg bats were dormant for the early goings. Against the Squeeze, the Lightning went 0-9 the first time through and 4-8 the second time around. They were just 1-10 the first go around, but would find success the second time through. Cam Hill (Georgia State and College) singled to open up the 4th, collecting his first of the season. A walk to Luke Harper (North Alabama) and a pair of stolen bases allowed Clay Stearns (Troy) to net a run on a groundout and a J.D Stubbs (Georgia-Gwinnett) RBI single into right momentarily gave Leesburg a 2-1 lead. Like last night, Coach Billings thought the pitch recognition on off-speed stuff was able to turn things around for the offense:

“He had us swinging at that slider wherever he threw it. Once we got together and talked about an approach, our at-bats got a lot better”

The Dawgs and Lightning alternated runs over the next few innings, with Winter Park’s Michael Ballard (Eckerd) scoring on a fielding error by Jordan Griffin (Carson-Newman) in right. Griffin atoned for his mistake in the top of the 6th by ripping a single, stealing second, and coming home on an RBI single by Harper. 

Leading 3-2, things would slip away from the Lightning. Beau Fletcher (Troy), who would end up with the loss, allowed back to back singles to open the 7th before walking two, the second scoring Dominick McIntryre (North Alabama) to tie the game at three. With Zach Henderson (Valdosta State) pitching, Carlos Castillo (St. Petersburg) brought in a run on a deep sacrifice fly to center, and then a wild pitch from Henderson brought in Drew Howard (Rollins) before Ballard scored on a throwing error by Travis Stapleton (UNF). An inning that started with a 3-2 Lightning lead ended with a 6-3 for Winter Park. Regardless of how the inning went, Coach Billings isn’t discouraged”

“You have guys pitching for the first time.. You’ve got to give them the chance to shake off the cobwebs. Tonight was one of those nights.”

The Diamond Dawgs would tack on another run in the 8th via Carr’s first homer of the season. The Lightning, trailing 7-3, looked dead in the water. Then, the 9th happened.

The Lightning got the first two aboard when Drew McMahan (Swarthmore) issued two straight walks on nine pitches. Parker Stoyan (Saint Louis) didn’t fair better, walking two more, the second of which led Stearns crossing home plate. A Naphis Llanos (Francis Marion) pinch line out to left scored Stubbs, making it a 7-5. With Robbie Scott (UNF) standing on third and the tying run at the plate, both Bryce Bitting (South Florida State) and Chase Malloy (Jacksonville) struck out to end the game. The Lightning ended the night with 12 strikeouts, but only six after the first two innings. 

The Lightning will be back at Pat Thomas Stadium for game two of this three game on Friday night at 7 p.m. Colton Bruns, who last pitched against the River Rats on Monday night, is expected to get the start.

Matias Weilmann (Ithaca College)

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