Lightning Strikes Twice: Dawgs Blow Late Lead Again
LEESBURG, Fla (July 13, 2018) – The Winter Park Diamond Dawgs lost a late lead yet again as they visited the Leesburg Lightning for the final time in the regular season. They surrendered six runs in the bottom of the eighth to lose 7-5.
They say that lightning never strikes the same place twice, but in the last three days the Diamond Dawgs have lost to the Lightning in the same fashion in losing late leads.
The game started out well for Winter Park. They jumped out to an early lead in the first as leadoff hitter Robbie Scott (Lake Sumter) drew a walk, stole second, advanced to third on a balk and proceeded to score on a passed ball. Cristian Rivera (Webber International) would double home a run in the bottom of the second to extend the Diamond Dawgs lead to 2-0.
Another run would come across in the third inning on an Alex Jackson (Wichita State) double to deep left center field. Trailing 3-0, the Lightning finally answered and scratched a run across to make it 3-1 after three innings of play.
Trevor Tinder (Georgia) performed phenomenally in his second start for the Diamond Dawgs. He threw five innings and allowed only three hits while striking out four. There is no doubt that Tinder pitched well enough to be the game’s winning pitcher.
“He gave us a great chance to win,” said Schall, “We should have had a lot of separation in that game early.”
Zeros would fill up the scoreboard until the top of the sixth inning where Chandler Robertson would hit an RBI single to knock in two additional runs to give Winter Park a 5-1 lead.
Leesburg would rally in the eighth inning as the Lightning would load the bases. The first batter of the inning walked followed by two consecutive singles. A walk and a hit by pitch would score two runs to make it 5-3. A fielder’s choice up the middle to get one out would score another run. Leesburg left fielder Luke Brown would double home an additional run to tie the game at 5. The ninth hitter of the inning in Jake Matulia lined a base hit up the middle to make it 7-5. The Diamond Dawg bullpen once again blew a big lead against the Lightning.
“We did so many good things early on and they did so many things to help us score runs,” said Schall, “and then we just gave it right back to them.”
Winter Park squandered many opportunities on the base paths to keep them from pulling away. There were too many to count, but a situation such as forgetting what out it is on a pop fly describes the blunders well.
“Our base running took us out of innings tonight,” said Schall, “We should have scored at least 10 runs, that’s the difference in the game right there.”
Seminole County comes to Winter Park to play two as the Scorpions and Diamond Dawgs battle to stay out of the cellar in the FCSL standings. Seminole County is coming off of a 10-0 win against Sanford, so they will have plenty of momentum.
Ken Landis (UCF)
