The Lightning Drop Game 1 To The River Rats, 7-2, Looks To Keep Season Alive.
(Leesburg, Fla.)-The Leesburg Lightning were held off by the Sanford River Rats on Tuesday night, putting Sanford up 1-0 in the Semifinal Series heading into Game 2.
In the top of the 2nd, Sanford would strike first in the ballgame from Robbie Demetree's sacrifice fly to RF Riley Fitzgerald to put the River Rats up 1-0.
Leesburg would get some quality pitching from Peyton Petry after a struggling start for All-Star right-hander Tyler Donay, bring 4.2 innings of work out of the bullpen for the Bolts and keeping Sanford scoreless for a majority of his outing.
Right-hander Corey Peters however was flawless through four innings pitched, allowing no hits offensively from the Leesburg bats.
That would change in the bottom of the 5th off a solo blast from EH Orlando Pena, tying the game at 1-1.
However, in the top of the 7th, EH Anthony Cole would strike on arguably the biggest hit of the night with a two RBI-double, putting Sanford out in front, 3-1.
Sanford would add one more run in the 8th off and Anthony Saleeba RBI-single, but Michael Furry would hit a sacrifice fly to score in Gabriel Santiago to inch the Bolts closer back, 4-2.
But in the 9th, Sanford would tack on three more runs off two RBI-singles, putting Leesburg down by five.
Andrew Lepine would respond after a bit of rocky outing, shuting the door on Leesburg to give Sanford the advantage heading into tonight's game.
Tonight's game will be a 6:30 p.m. start and will be hosted at Sanford Memorial Stadium as Leesburg looks to keep their hopes alive of making it to a 5th straight league championship.
Dylan Spaulding (University of South Florida)
