Seminole County Struggles In Loss To Leesburg
SANFORD, Fla-- The Seminole County Scorpions struggled defensively with four errors, and fell to the Leesburg Lightning of a final score 15-6 Monday night. Two separate four run innings by the Lightning was the difference in this game.
Leesburg jumped out to an early lead when leadoff hitter Robbie Scott (North Florida) worked a walk, and scored after the Scorpions had two throwing errors on an attempted stolen base. The Lightning got two more after an RBI double by Max Law (North Florida), an RBI single by Cage Cox (Undecided), and another on a Scorpions error to take a 4-0 advantage.
The Lightning extended their lead to 5-0 in the second inning when Law hit another RBI single.
In the bottom of the second the Scorpion cut into the deficit a little bit. Parker Smith (Rollins) started it off with a single, and Hayden Cross (App State) followed by reaching on an error. With runners on second and first with two outs, Nick Wells (Polk State) hit a fly ball to right centerfield that Donte Wade (NC A&T) couldn’t handle and both runs came across to make it a three-run ballgame.
However, Leesburg answered immediately in the third with two runs via a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly to get the lead back up to five at 7-2
Seminole County battled back in the fifth inning. Leesburg loaded up the bases in the top half of the inning with one down and were looking to break this game wide open. Relief pitcher Jack Berry (Undecided) overcame the jam with back-to-back strikeouts, and it ignited the Scorpions bats in the bottom half of the inning. After two quick outs, the Scorpions put some hits together and scored three runs. Trace Thornal (Valdosta State) and Topher Grant (Lenoir-Rhyne) both hit singles, Josh Reynolds (Embry-Riddle) walked, and the bases were loaded for Mike Christopoulos (Valdosta State). Thornal scored on a wild pitch early in the at bat, and then on a 2-2 pitch Christopoulos drove a line drive single into right centerfield for two RBI’s to make it 7-5.
The next inning, Leesburg answered again and really put this one out of reach with another four run inning. After the first three batters got on base, the Lightning were able to manufacture two quick runs off of Berry. Then, Jarrett Backus (King College) hit a big two RBI single and the Lightning took a 11-6 lead. Leesburg added more runs with one in the eighth on an RBI groundout and three in the ninth courtesy of a home run by Sean Mootrey (Georgia Gwinnet) to dead centerfield.
Head coach Jeff Lemon believes his guys just got to stay in it and compete every single night.
“We just got to stay competitive and understand that we can score runs when these guys put their minds to it,” said Lemon. “We are going to grind through games and stay competitive.”
After the loss, the Scorpions record moved to 2-6 on the season. The team will travel to Pat Thomas Stadium Tuesday to face off with Lightning again and look to bounce back. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m., and Christian Simon (Montevallo) is expected to take the hill for Seminole County.
