Rare Blown Lead Downs Bolts

LEESBURG, Fla- The Leesburg Lighting (17-11) have been one of the toughest teams in the whole league to beat at home all season. After leading for a majority of Thursday night’s series opener against the DeLand Suns (14-13), the Lightning fell 6-5 in their final home game of the regular season on a ninth inning implosion.

The Suns got on the board first after a two-out double by Diego Garcia (Pasco Hernando) made it 1-0. The run was unearned, however, because a popup in foul territory by the run’s author Robert Chayka (Kentucky Wesleyan), was dropped. Until the end of the game, it was a quiet night in the run production department for the Suns. 

The Lighting collected a hit in each of their first two innings, including a booming triple by Robbie Scott (UNF) in the second, but couldn’t drive in either runners. That changed in the third when, with the bases loaded, a double play tied the game at 1. The offense got back to work quickly in the fourth, with a Clay Stearns (Troy) double eventually leading to a 2-1 lead off a wild pitch. The double by Stearns was one of three hits for him on the night, just 24 hours removed from going 3-5 against the Rats.

The Lightning defense, meanwhile, bounced back beautifully from a pair of errors in the first. A 5-4-3 double play in the third and a 6-4-3 double play in the fourth helped erase some early jams for Jacob Bradshaw (UNA), who started his second game of the season. 

Bradshaw would receive some extra run support in the fifth, when back to back hits by Travis Stapleton (UNF) and Chase Malloy (Jacksonville) put two aboard in scoring position with nobody gone. Consecutive sacrifice flies pushed the lead to 4-1.

From there, both offenses went dormant for the next three innings. The Suns mustered just four hits over the next three innings, with a JD Stubbs (Georgia Gwinnett) double representing the only one for the Lightning. Head coach Rich Billings pointed out missed opportunities early in the game as a big reason why the game ended up going south for the Bolts.

“We set ourselves up for that (the comeback) by not taking care of business on the front end of the game on the offensive side.”

Jacob Bradshaw, on the other hand, was fantastic all night, turning in the longest outing for a Lightning starting pitcher this season. Bradshaw needed just 69 pitches to get through six innings of work, while allowing eight hits and just one walk. The only run he allowed was the unearned run in the first. Coach Billings was in awe of what Bradshaw did tonight.

“It was one of the most efficient outings I've seen. He was around the plate all night long and made them swing. Pitchers can learn alot from what he did tonight.”

Blayne Huter (South Florida State) worked two clean innings for the Lightning before starting the ninth with a three run lead. The Suns offense, which had ten hits to that point but had stranded nine batters, finally woke up in the final frame. A single and a homerun off the bat of Joe Burke (Kentucky Wesleyan) made it 4-3. After Huter was replaced by Evan Waterbor (FAU), an ensuing walk and throwing error by Waterbor immediately bounced him from the game, giving way to Connor Gleeson (Gardner Webb).

After getting a controversial first out of the inning on a ground out, the tying run and go ahead run were both in scoring position. A Raymond Sass (Brown) single into left gave the Suns their first lead since the third inning, and an Evan St. Claire (Siena) double made it 6-4. The Lightning allowed more runs in the ninth inning on Thursday night (5) than they had allowed in the ninth inning all season (3 total).

For the first time in 45 days, the Lightning trailed in the ninth at home. Three straight reached base to open the frame on a walk, single, and fielder’s choice. After retiring Scott, Logan Griffith (NC A&T) saw a Jordan Griffin (Carson Newman) fielder’s choice make it a 6-5 game. With the tying run on third and the winning run on first, a groundout to second base sealed the deal for the Suns. Coach Billings summarized tonight’s loss in one word: frustrating.

“It’s frustrating to get such a good start from your starting pitcher and have everything going your way and all of a sudden it not. We have to be better defensively and in the back side of the game.”

Despite the loss that Billings described as one that “stung”, he took a positive away from it.

“You can look at it as a positive that it happened and that teams are capable of doing that to us.” said Billings. “You get to a point where you think you’re invincible in the ninth inning with a lead. It’s good for our guys to see that this can happen to us too.”

The Lightning, after the Rats had their game rained out, now sit a full game back of first place with just two left to be played. They’ll be in DeLand for the next two games of the series, with Colton Bruns (St. Leo) starting on Friday.

Matias Weilmann (Ithaca College)

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