College baseball: Leesburg Lightning snap losing streak with win against Snappers
SANFORD — The Leesburg Lightning snapped its four-game losing streak Monday with a 6-5 win against the Seminole County Snappers at Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium.
With the win, Leesburg improved to 6-4 on the season, while Seminole County is now 5-2.
The game was the first matchup d for Leesburg head coach Rich Billings and former Lightning assistant, now head coach of the Snappers, Matt Swiderski. Billings got the best of his old coaching buddy in game one of the series and was glad to speak on it after the win.
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“It was awesome and intense,” Billings said. “He certainly wanted to beat me and I wanted to beat him, it was a lot of fun.”
The Lightning scored what turned out to be the winning run in the seventh inning. With the game tied at 5-5, Michael Furry and Brandon Triplett opened the frame with back-to-back singles, putting runners on the corners. Gabe Santiago then grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, scoring Furry.
From there, Zach Mizrahi, Tyler Van Dyke and Connor Gleeson combined to shut down the Snappers over their final three at bats. Seminole managed only one hit in that span.
Mizrahi picked up the win, his first of the season, and Gleeson notched his second save.
“They were awesome,” said Billings. “We had the right guys at the right time and ‘Miz’ was the difference maker for us. I thought he pitched really well and set the tone for the last two guys.”
Leesburg jumped out to an early lead with three runs in its first at-bat.
Junior infielder Gabe Esquivel drove in the first run of the game with a ground ball to shortstop that snuck through the infield, scoring outfielder Austin Brinling all the way from first base.
Two more runs would score as three straight hits were rattled off by the Bolts including RBI singles from both Noah Best and Ramses Cordova Leesburg led 3-0 after one inning of play.
Freshman right-handed pitcher Cody Bruns made the start for the Lightning and allowed one run on one hit through two frames. An hour-long lightning delay would conclude Bruns’ night after just the second inning.
The Lightning would add to their lead in the third on a throwing error from Snapper’s shortstop Keanu Jacob-Guishard. Seminole County made five errors in the contest and the lead would carry to 4-0 in favor of Leesburg.
After the Snappers struck back with a run in the top of the fifth, Esquivel drove a sacrifice-fly to right field that scored Leesburg’s fifth run of the night.
Seminole County would not go away quietly though as they tied the ballgame in the bottom half of the fifth with four runs. A solo homer to lead off the inning from outfielder Nelson Taylor would get things started.
An RBI double from Cade Brewer would cut the lead in half. Two batters later, a Lightning throwing error would allow a pair of Snapper runs to score, tying the game at five.
Still in the fifth with a runner on and nobody out, sophomore left-hander Zach Mizrahi entered the game on the mound for the Lightning. “Maserati” dealt three hitless innings, striking out four while earning his first win.
“It’s one pitch at a time,” Mizrahi said. “I wasn’t really thinking about who was on base, I was just trying to make pitches. It was a big morale boost and the pitchers looked great today.
“The hitters came through and it was an all-around team win.”
Tom Cavanaugh is the communications intern for the Leesburg Lightning.
This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: College baseball: Leesburg Lightning end skid with win over Snappers
