Squeeze Arms Baffle Storm On Their Way to 5-1 Victory
By, Zack Smolen
Leesburg, FL – The Winter Garden Squeeze (10-6) continued their dominance on the mound and extended their winning streak to four games with a 5-1 win against the Leesburg Storm (7-8-2) on Thursday night at Pat Thomas Stadium. The Squeeze have now outscored their opponents 21-3 during their current run of success.
Starting pitcher Nicholas Shower (Ohio Valley), rained strikes down on the Storm all night long to pick up his third win of the season. He spun together five innings of scoreless baseball, striking out four in the process and scattering just three hits and a pair of walks. With his latest outing in the books, Shower now has a consecutive scoreless streak of 11 and two-thirds innings.
After going down one-two-three in the top of the first inning, the Squeeze drew first blood off an RBI single by Cale Jones (Webber International) to jump ahead 1-0. They would then pour it on with three more runs the next inning, including a two-run missile courtesy of Noah Dickerson (Arkansas Little Rock), who launched his second home run of the season well beyond the wall in right field.
The Squeeze put together a fine effort on both sides of the ball, collecting 11 total hits against a hit Storm pitching staff while surrendering just seven base runners and a single unearned run. “[It was] a total team effort,” said Squeeze manager Terry Abbott. “We got hitting, we made some plays in the field and our pitching staff came in and did a great job.”
Leesburg had a tough go of things at the plate despite a leadoff single by Spencer Rich (Daytona St.) to open up the ballgame for them in the bottom of the first. The team would only muster two more hits the rest of the evening and scored their lone run off a throwing error in the sixth.
Mason Turner’s (Lincoln Memorial) performance on the mound was a silver lining for the Storm, as he kept the game close in his three innings of relief. Turner allowed one run on two hits and a walk while striking out six, including all three Squeeze batters in the top of the fourth.
Winter Garden will look to make it five wins in a row Friday morning at 11am against the second-place Orlando Scorpions over at Conrad Park.
The Storm will visit Conrad Park later, Friday evening at 7pm when they visit the DeLand Suns.
