Snappers Two Out Rally Shocks Suns
SANFORD, Fla. - One night after the DeLand Suns shocked the Sanford Mavericks with a walk-off error, DeLand fell victim to its own mistakes on Wednesday. The Seminole County Snappers took advantage of four errors by the Suns to plate eight runs over the final three innings and win 8-6.
Jovan Gill (Stetson) received the start for DeLand and he was solid from the start. Over the first four innings, Gill allowed only one earned run while the Suns raced out to an early 4-0 lead to in the bottom second from four hits and two walks. Christian Pregent (Stetson) got things going with a one-out single and Clemente Inclan (North Carolina) followed with a walk to put two runners on. Jordan Almodovar (Trinity Baptist) came through with a two-RBI single to give DeLand its first runs of the game. Robert Chayka (Kentucky Wesleyan) followed with a double to advance Almodovar to third and both came in to score on a single by Blaine Hogue (Embry-Riddle) for the 4-0 lead.
Trying to tame the Suns’ hot offense, Connor Harris (George Washington) and Melvin Cotto (Eastern Florida State) both worked a scoreless inning of relief, with Harris striking out the side in the third. The score remained the same until the fifth inning when Seminole County exploded offensively.
Leading off the fifth inning, Llanos singled and moved to second on an error. On another error from the Suns infield Chris Klein (West Virginia) reached base, moving Llanos to the corner with no outs. Llanos and Klein came home off an RBI single and a sacrifice fly to center field. Snappers cut the deficit to one run scoring a third run on a ground out with still with an out to work with. It was when Robert Post (Embry-Riddle) laced another single putting the Snappers on top of the Suns 5-4. Posts saw the ball well going 2-3 and the only out being a sliced ball right at the second baseman.
The Suns did not lay down after falling behind, they came right back out in the bottom of the fifth and added two runs to take back the lead. Chayka bunted the ball down the first base line for a base hit. Greg Lewondoski (Kent State) and Josh Allen (Duke) walked later to load the bases. Chayka and Lewandoski crossed home plate when Gill hit a slow roller out of the reach of the Snappers shortstop. Deland took the 6-5 lead but would not score again.
Dalton Ross shut the high-powered Suns offense for the final two innings. Ross struck out five out of the seven batters faced including striking out the side to finish the game in the seventh.
Seminole County threatened in the sixth with two runners in scoring position, but nothing came of it as two players grounded out to end the inning. The Snappers with just three outs left looked to be out of it when the first two batters of flew out to center and grounded out. Deland was inches away from the win as an error from their shortstop allowed for a Cody Forster (Embry-Riddle) bouncing groundball pass his glove. Following the mistake, the Snappers hit for four straight singles. For the second day in a row, Garrett Evans (FAU) singled to bring home the tying run. In Tuesday’s game against the Squeeze Evans tied the game but the team fell short in extras however, that would not be the case against the Suns. Evans was 0-3 going up to the plate but, he was able to stay relaxed and not let the pressure get to him.
“Every at bat I just pray and say Lord help me to keep calm in these situations. He blessed me and let me stay calm in that situation even after a day where I could be frustrated.”
Immediately after the Evans single, Llanos takes first pitched into left field scoring the go ahead run. Klein added an insurance run with the fourth single. Klein and Llanos both went 3-4 and an RBI. Llanos said, “You don’t want to close the inning with you being out” and Klein agreed.
Deland (3-12) will turn its attention to the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs for a home game at Conrad Park on Thursday at 7 p.m. Seminole County (8-6-1) is also at Conrad to take on the Orlando Scorpions with an 11 a.m. first pitch.
- Conlan Birdsall and Kyrin Mayfield
