Leesburg baseball: Lightning drops third straight, falling to Diamond Dawgs
LEESBURG — The Leesburg Lightning dropped its third straight game and second in as many nights 8-3 to the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs Friday at Pat Thomas Stadium-Buddy Lowe Field.
The loss dropped the Lightning (5-3) out of first place in the Florida Collegiate Summer League standings for the first time this season, while Winter Park improved to 5-2 and ascended into a first-place tie with Seminole County.
First pitch was delayed an hour due to rain and lightning delays. and the game was scoreless until the Dawgs struck with a run in the third inning. An inning later, Braden Calise ripped an RBI single to center field to give Winter Park a 2-0 lead.
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Leesburg cut the Diamond Dawgs' advantage in half in the bottom of the fourth when Gabriel Esquivel blasted a home run to left.
Najer Victor got the start for the Lightning and pitched well. The sophomore at Florida Gulf Coast University went four innings in his second start of the season and allowed two runs — one earned — on three hits, while striking out six.
The fifth inning, however, proved to be the Lightning’s undoing.
Continuing to push out bullpen arms, Leesburg used five relief pitchers to spell Victor. The first, fresh right hander Bryson Galloway was shelled, allowing five runs on three hits in just 2/3 innings.
The last four hurlers — Zach Mizrahi, Tanner Walker, Justin Gay and and Eustis graduate Tyler Van Dyke — closed out the game and combined to surrender just one run on one hit with five strikeouts between them.
Jacob Stretch earned the win in relief of starting pitcher Jacob Burr for the Diamond Dawgs. Stretch threw three innings, giving up one run on one hit while striking out five.
Calise closed out matters on the mound for Winter Park, allowing one run on two hits while striking out two.
Leesburg scored a pair of window-dressing runs over the final two innings. Austin Brinling scored on a sacrifice fly Marco Dinges in the eighth and Devon Nowells raced home on an infielder groundout by Travis Stapleton in the ninth.
Led by Esquivel and Ramses Cordova, each of whom had two hits, the Lightning finished with 10, two more than the Diamond Dawgs. Leesburg, which struck out 13 times for the second straight night, also stranded 11 runners on base.
Tom Cavanaugh is the communications intern for the Leesburg Lightning.
This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: College baseball: Leesburg Lightning drops third straight, falling to Dawgs
