Lighnting Split Modified Doubleheader at Sanford

GAME ONE

SANFORD, Fla. -- For the second game in a row, the Leesburg Lightning (7-9) finished a suspended game before playing a regularly scheduled game. On Monday, the club travelled to Sanford to take on the River Rats (8-10). 

The game was resumed in the top of the fifth, with the Lightning in front 5-0 and two outs on the board. After Edward Surinach was retired to end the top of the fifth, the River Rats came to the plate in the home half. 

Thomas Broyles (Missouri Columbia) crushed a three-run home run to dead centerfield to cut the Lightning deficit to 5-3 after five innings.

The Lightning responded with a run in the sixth, as Sean Mootrey (Georgia Gwinnett) reached base via a walk and eventually came around to score on a wild pitch. 

The ball was flying out of Sanford Memorial Stadium in the afternoon heat, as Justin Farmer (Florida International) got every bit of a solo home run over the left field wall. 

Once again, Leesburg responded with a run of its own. Tate Mathis (North Alabama) led off the top of the eighth with a line-drive single to centerfield. After a sacrifice bunt and a groundout, Mathis was standing on third base with two outs. With Wyatt Elbe (Maryville) at the plate, Mathis scampered home on a wild pitch to extend the Leesburg lead to 7-4. 

The Lightning added some insurance off the bat of Parker Pillsbury, who unloaded on a ball over the right field wall for his second home run of the season. The homer pushed the Leesburg lead to 8-4. 

In the bottom of the ninth, the Lightning sent Matthew Graves (Blue Mountain) to the mound with an 8-4 advantage. The Rats did not go down without a fight, as Broyles hit his second home run of the day, a two-run bomb that made it a 8-6 score. 

That was all the River Rats could muster in the ninth, as Graves shut the door to preserve the 8-6 victory and the third straight win for the Lightning.

Lightning head coach Rich Billings said that continuing a previously postponed game is challenging, but liked that his team started out with a lead. “Yeah it’s tough, but I liked that we had a 5-0 advantage to start,” said Billings. “I thought the guys played pretty well. We scored runs when we needed to score runs. When we gave up runs, we bounced right back.”

GAME TWO

SANFORD, Fla. -- After claiming the win in the continued game, the Leesburg Lightning (7-9) went back to work against the Sanford River Rats (8-10). 

The Lightning found themselves in an early hole, after the River Rats pushed four runs across in the games first frame. Two of those runs came on a Francis Villaman (Florida International) chopper that just got over the head of Leesburg first baseman Jarrett Backus (King College). A Jared Herron (Rollins College) plated the fourth run.

The Lightning would turn around and cut the deficit in half, as Robbie Scott (North Florida) scored on an infield single by Stephen Wilmer (East Carolina), who later scored on a wild pitch that made it a 4-2 game. 

The Rats did not stop there, as they added three more runs to their total, including a Jarrod Cande (Florida Southern) two-run homer that made it 7-2 Sanford with two innings complete. 

Timely hitting and a couple of Lightning miscues led to three more Sanford runs, as its lead was pushed to 10-2 after just three innings. 

In the top of the fourth, Michael Rocco (Ohio Northern) scored on a wild pitch and Max Law (North Florida) drove in a run on a sacrifice fly. After four, the Rats enjoyed a 10-4 lead. 

The Lightning got on the board again in the fifth on a bases-loaded walk from Parker Pillsbury (Chipola) that cut the Sanford advantage to 10-5.

However, Jarrod Cande tormented the Lightning again. In the home half of the fifth, he blasted his second home run of the night - and his league-leading sixth on the season - and pushed the Sanford lead to 12-5. The Rats would tack on one more and lead 13-5 after five frames.

A Tate Mathis (North Alabama) double brought home Cage Cox (Valdosta State) in the sixth to cut the deficit to 13-6. 

The River Rats added two runs in the seventh and came away with the 15-6 win. 

Head coach Rich Billings said the club simply ran out of arms. Edward Surinach and Jarrett Backus are capable of pitching, but are primarily position players. Each of them saw action in Monday night’s game. “We wanted to get Eddie (Surinach) and (Jarrett) Backus some work,” Billings said. “We were down to our last guys. It wasn’t a bad thing. They both did a pretty good job.”

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