'Ning Dynasty Falls in Season Finale

Leesburg and Sanford entered the third game of their three game set on Friday with high hopes. Each team had won in walk off fashion, with both games going into 11 innings. The Lightning took game one on a walk off single off the bat of pinch hitter Tyler Kellmann on Wednesday. But on Thursday, the Rats gave the Lightning a taste of their own medicine when they spoiled a late Lightning lead by scoring two in the bottom of the eleventh to win 4-3.

Everyone wondered if that last play on Thursday would carry over into Friday’s game or if the deflated team could bounce back to make their second trip to Tropicana in two years. As the game progressed it seemed that the former would prove true.

The Rats first three hitters all reached base with no outs to start the game and the bad luck was just a taste of things to come for Leesburg. An error on a throw home that may have stopped a rally went for two runs.

The Lightning got the runs right back in the bottom half to tie it at two but that would be the only offense the team could muster.

All-Star Game MVP Alex Mendez hit a two run homerun off of Dylan Ortega and then hung an ominous five spot on the scoreboard in the fourth. Credit the Rats with a great ability to apply “small ball” tactics the entire series. Their hitters reached base with infield hits, bunts and suicide squeezes and their ability to nickel and dime the Lightning while capitalizing on Leesburg mistakes that had been so few and far between all season would help them edge the beloved Leesburg nine.

Starter Dylan Ortega took credit for all nine of the Sanford runs. His start on Friday is no knock on what he had been able to accomplish all season on the mound for Leesburg. All summer, Ortega was a perfect complement to Nic Kovacs giving the Lightning a dynamic 1-2 duo. But on Friday night, Sanford jumped on pitches early and put the game out of reach.

A violent thunderstorm put things on hold and postponed the game in the fifth inning with the Rats up 9-2.

The game picked up where it left off, but the rain had only postponed the inevitable as the seven run deficit was just too much to overcome.

In fact, neither team scored and only recorded five hits between them in the final five innings played on Saturday which was unfortunate for the hometown team whose season would come to an impromptu end.

Sanford found a way to stop the Leesburg offense that had been so explosive all season long. The Lightning scored only seven runs in the three games combined and it was the Sanford offense, surprisingly, that went on a tear in the final game.

Kory Brooker pitched excellently in relief on Friday night and a combination of Kurtis Gens and Max Rusch were lights out on Saturday, but the damage had been done and the Lightning fell.

Iron Man Mike Albaladejo played in his final game in a Leesburg uniform as did a few other players but Albaladejo will forever hold a special place in the hearts of Lightning fans for his unbelievable determination and hard play. Mike was and will always be a natural born leader and did everything and anything possible to help his team win over his three seasons in Leesburg.

Sanford advances to play Winter Park in St. Petersburg in the Florida League Championship Game Sunday afternoon after the Rays take on the Oakland Athletics.

The 2011 Leesburg Lightning will go in the record books as the winningest team in League history with 30 wins and had a few players break record of their own with shortstop Jacob Tillotson breaking the season hit mark.

Coach Therneau deserves a large part of the credit for this historic season. Even though the team fell short of a Championship, Therneau did a masterful job of commanding the Leesburg pitching staff and tweaking the lineup that was powerful all summer long. The Pitching Coach at Embry-Riddle is more than welcomed back to Leesburg and is destined for bigger and better things down the road.

Fittingly, the players tipped their caps to the Leesburg faithful who came out win or lose, all season long.

By: Nick Beardi (Medaille College)

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