Leesburg Lightning baseball tops Florida Collegiate Summer League leading Diamond Dawgs
LEESBURG — The Leesburg Lightning outscored the Winter Park 4-1 in the first inning of Tuesday night’s game at Pat Thomas Stadium-Buddy Lowe Field.
Then, the Lightning used pitching and defense to make that early advantage hold up for Leesburg’s first win of the season against the Florida Collegiate Summer League leaders.
With the win, the Lightning’s fourth in their last five games, Leesburg improved to 10-6 on the season, and cut the Diamond Dawgs advantage in the standings to 1 1/2 games. Winter Park is 11-4.
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The deciding swing came in the first inning when Lightning catcher Jakob Runnels belted a two-run double into the gap in left-center field with the bases loaded to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead. Austin Brinling and Gabriel Santiago scored on the play.
The Bolts added two more in the inning — Quinn Petty scored on a single by Noah Best and Runnels raced home on a single by Ian Thornton — closing out the scoring for the game.
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Southpaw Brandon Haston got the starting nod for the Lightning. After surrendering a run in Winter Park’s first at bat, Haston delivered two shutout innings, allowing just one run on six hits with two strikeouts.
“There were a lot of good things that happened today. I thought all of our pitchers were just really tough on the mound,” Leesburg manager Rich Billings said. “I would’ve liked to see us score a couple more later in the game; we had chances but weren’t able to get that big hit like we did in the first.”
Winter Park’s only run came on an RBI single by outfielder Blake DeLamielluere in the top of the first. The Dawgs bats would go quiet the rest of the game, failing to generate any offense
“Jakob Runnels came through really big in the first with a double to score a couple runs, Ian Thornton had a big two-out hit to drive one in,” Billings said “We had some things that went our way and I think the guys played really well tonight.”
Leesburg’s bullpen was flawless as they held Winter Park to just one hit in the final six innings. Winning pitcher Justin Gay continued his dominance on the mound, entering first out of the bullpen and tossed three innings, allowing one hit and striking out a pair.
Gay improved to 4-0 on the year, the best record in the FCSL.
Despite Gay’s dominance, best pitching performance of the night likely came from crafty lefty Cameron Sereda. Tossing the seventh and eighth innings, Sereda struck out five of the nine batters he faced.
“That guy is gold. He’s just so dependable because you know exactly what you're going to get out of him,” Billings said of Sereda. “Tonight, he was tough because he was just a bulldog and made some really big pitches to get some huge strikeouts and a couple quick, easy outs.”
Veteran closer Connor Gleeson earned his third save of the season as he shut the door in the ninth inning with two punch outs. Gleeson has not allowed a run in six appearances this season and has 11 strikeouts and just one walk.
The Lightning is off Wednesday and will play the Winter Garden Squeeze at 7 p.m. Thursday at West Orange High School in Winter Garden.
Tom Cavanaugh is the communications intern for the Leesburg Lightning.
This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Florida Collegiate Summer League: Lightning top Diamond Dawgs 4-1
