WINTER GARDEN, Fla (July 15, 2018) – With a good start and tough end this week in Winter Garden, the Winter Garden Squeeze snagged two wins this past week, but dropped five. 

It all started with a big win against the #1 Leesburg Lightning at Heller Brothers Ballpark. Winter Garden maintained the lead the whole span of the game, with Leesburg not being able to outweigh the (4) errors made along the way. The final score was 5-2.

The Squeeze faced the DeLand Suns at home on Wednesday and took an early lead to start the game and scored one run in their first inning against the Suns. The Squeeze were unable to score again until the bottom half of the ninth; but the Suns had already scored five beforehand with a two-run homer, which put the Suns back on top and gave them the win, 5-3.   

As the series continued, Winter Garden took the road to DeLand for a doubleheader, going 1-1 for the day. They took game two; 5-3.

Winter Garden took the lead first in game two, and scored three in the top of the second. DeLand matched the Squeeze’s three runs and tied the game in the bottom of the fourth, but the Squeeze came back up and took the lead in the top of the fifth, after Ozuna another double to score Adams Torres (UCF). Tyler Head (Troy) hit a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Luke Reidy (Rollins) and advanced Drenis Ozuna (Connors State) to third, but no one else was able to score the rest of the inning, which resulted in the final score of the game being 5-3, Winter Garden. 

The Squeeze faced the Suns one last time after playing them three times in a row prior, but errors lead to the fall of Winter Garden. DeLand left Friday night with a 5-3 win.

Tuesday’s game was rescheduled to Saturday, which resulted in a doubleheader in Leesburg to end the week. After a long day, it resulted in two very uneasy endings for Winter Garden, as the visitors were unable to claim a victory from Leesburg. 

Due to weather, game one came to a close after five innings of play; the Squeeze were defeated by the Lightning 6-2. Game two was a back and fourth game that kept the fans on the edge of their seat. The game went into an extra inning, where the Squeeze took the lead in the top of the eighth after Reeder Smith (Troy) hit a double and scored after a Aaron Anderson (Flagler)  made it on base and errors made by the Lightning. 

Headed into the bottom of the eighth, Winter Garden was up 7-6 and just needed to execute three more outs.

Leesburg had other plans. 

Michael Cullen (Chipola) came in for Winter Garden to close out the game. With two Leesburg players on base, Sean Mootrey hit a walk-off three-run homer for the Lightning, which resulted in Leesburg snagging the lead and the final score of game two was 9-7. 

Top Performers – 
Reeder Smith (Troy) - .440 AVG, 8 R, 11 H, 2-3B, 6 SB. 
P – Ryan Welsh (Undecided) – 6.2 IP, 5 SO, 0.000 ERA

The Florida League prepares for the Southeast Prospect Collegiate Showcase at Wingate University in North Carolina. The showcase will be held on Monday and Tuesday, July 16/17. For the official roster, click here. 

Games to come – 
Wednesday, July 18 (7 p.m.) – @ Seminole (12-19)
Thursday, July 19 (6 p.m.) – vs. Seminole
Friday, July 20 (7 p.m.) – @ Seminole 
Saturday, July 21 (6 p.m.) – vs. Leesburg (23-7)
Sunday, July 22 (5 p.m.) – @ Sanford (14-17)