News

LEESBURG, Fla - The Leesburg Lightning dropped game one of the Florida League Semifinals against the Sanford River Rats in a 9-1 seven-inning, mercy rule loss on Monday night at Pat Thomas Stadium-Buddy Lowe Field. 

The ballgame was completely dominated by Sanford, as they never trailed throughout the contest, opening up with a two-run homer off the bat of first baseman Jeff Liquori (Florida Southern) in the top of the first inning. 

Lightning starting pitcher Layton Perry (Jacksonville) allowed four runs on four hits in four and two thirds innings pitched. He would pick up his first loss of the season, moving to a 3-1 record. 

The only run the Lightning would score came in the bottom of the third when second baseman Noah Best (Birmingham Southern) drove in shortstop Ramses Cordova (Winthrop) with an RBI groundout to second base, then cutting the Sanford lead to 2-1.

Errors would infect Leesburg all night long as they had five errors and only four hits in the game. Sanford would capitalize with seven runs in the final three innings of play to put themselves in position for the early mercy rule victory. 

Three more Lightning pitchers - Cameron Sereda (Tampa), Mason Morello (Amy-WestPoint) and Ivan VanBeverhoudt Jr. (Anderson) would throw in the loss, combining for the final two and one third innings, allowing five runs on seven hits. 

Leesburg will need to bounce back and even up the series on Tuesday night in game two on the road against the Rats or its season will be over. First pitch is set for 6:30 pm ET at Sanford Memorial Stadium.

Tom Cavanaugh, (Michigan State University)