Rats Split with Lightning, Clinch Third Seed
LEESBURG, Fla. – On the final day of the regular season, the Sanford River Rats split a doubleheader with the Leesburg Lightning. Entering the day, the Rats needed a win to lock in the number three seed for the playoffs and did so with a 6-1 victory in game one before falling 3-0 in game two.
Sanford finished the regular season at 18-20-1 while Leesburg finished a league-best 28-13.
“First and foremost I congratulated the guys on their season,” head coach Scotty Makarewicz said. “But then I told them that we aren’t done yet. If you have to stay around and play extra games in the playoffs, you might as well win them.”
He added: “We came in and did what we needed to do today It’s another split, but we were able to avoid the play-in game.”
Game 1:
The Rats captured game one over the Lightning and were able to clinch the number three seed for the Florida League playoffs.
A strong outing from Devin Meyer (Nova Southeastern) and 12 hits on offense propelled Sanford to a 6-1 victory. The powerful righty pitched a complete game for the Rats and gave up just one run with five strikeouts. Meyer picked up his fourth victory of the summer and now has a solid 4-1 record.
Offensively, Cole Warken (Undecided) led the way for the Rats. Warken finished a perfect 3-for-3 at the dish and collected a trio of RBIs as well.
“I was just trying to be aggressive early in the count,” Warken said. “I didn’t try and overthink it too much and luckily I found some gaps today.”
Andrew Labosky (Nova Southeastern) and Michael Harkcom (FIU) also each finished the game with a pair of hits and Harkcom reached safely in all three of his plate appearances.
Serving as the away team, the Lightning took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning, but Meyer quelled Leesburg’s offense the rest of the contest.
Sanford struck back in the first when Josh Crouch (State College of Fl.) knocked a two-out single and came into score on an RBI single from Jonnie Benniefield (Undecided) two batters later.
Then, the Rats added another in the second. Warken started the frame with a single. The next batter, Jackson Muldowney (Indian River State) then roped a double into the gap and drove home the runner to put Sanford ahead 2-1.
Another run came across in the third. Harkcom drove through a single to leadoff the inning and a few batters later came in on an RBI single from Warken to make it a 3-1 Rat lead.
Sanford scored its final three runs of the contest in the fifth. Harkcom, Benniefield and Jarrod Cande (Santa Fe) each singled, walked and walked, respectively to load the bases with one out. Then, with the infield in, Warken flared a ball down the line in right to bring home two and the third run scored on a throwing error. The Rats took a comfortable 6-1 lead and would not relinquish it down the home stretch.
Game 2:
The nightcap was the opposite of the first game. A pitcher’s dual resulted in eight total hits, four on each side, but three River Rat errors proved to be the difference in the game.
Jeremy Peel (St. Leo) through five solid innings for Sanford and yielded just one earned run while striking out three and walking zero. However, Peel was issued the loss in the contest.
At the plate, Collin Morrill (New Orleans), Harkcom, Alex Dickinson (Princeton) and Garrett Sheffield (Santa Fe) picked up the only Sanford hits of the game, all of which were singles.
In the fourth inning, the Rats were able to move a runner around to third base with just one out but were unable to bring him in to score. Overall, Sanford stranded six runners.
Leesburg scored a run in the second, third, and sixth innings and the Lightning pitching staff as a whole kept the Rats’ bats quiet down the stretch. In the end, the Lightning were victorious and claimed the final game of the regular season 3-0.
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The Rats will now have a two-day break before returning to action on Tuesday. No. 3-seeded Sanford will face off against the No. 2-seeded DeLand Suns for a best-of-three series for a spot in the 2018 Florida League championship series.
Game one of the semifinal between the Rats and the Suns is set for Tuesday, July 31, at Conrad Park with first pitch at 7 p.m.
Myan Patel (Georgia)
