Boxscore

WINTER PARK, Fla (Aug. 5, 2018) – Once again with their backs against the wall, the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs live to see another day as they defeat the Deland Suns 7-5 as they win game two of the FCSL Championship Series.  The victory sends the championship series to a game three which will decide the champion in this best-of-three series that is tied at one game a side.

Game two had many twists and turns throughout, starting in the first inning.  Deland’s first three batters would reach and eventually score to give Deland an early lead.  The inning would end after seven batter came to the plate in the top half.

In the bottom of the first, the Diamond Dawgs answered with three of their own as Robbie Scott (Lake Sumter) led off the inning on the first pitch with a double.  The three runs would score on a Cale Jones (Santa Fe) sacrifice fly, a Cristian Rivera (Webber International) double, and a wild pitch.  The number eight hitter Brooks Brophy (Alabama Huntsville) hit an infield chopper and dove head first into the bag as it looked like he beat the tag as the throw was offline.  He was originally called safe which would’ve given Winter Park a 4-3 lead in the first inning but the umpires huddled together and overturned the call to end the inning.  Brophy despite being a pitcher got the start at first base and even got a base hit in the fourth inning.

Zeros would fill the scoreboard for a while as both pitchers battled it out.  Will Ard (USC Aiken) came into pitch in the second inning and was nothing shy of outstanding.  He pitched seven innings which is tied for the longest outing of the season by any Diamond Dawg and the longest on the active roster.  Normally a short reliever for Winter Park, he turned in his best performance of the season as Ard only allowed three hits and one run which was unearned.  He also struck out four batters while walking just one.

“I tried to go as deep as I could in the game,” said Ard, “I had a great defense behind me, they helped me out with a lot of hard hit balls and made some great plays which helped keep my pitch count down.”

Not only was this Ard’s best performance of the season, it was also the outing with the highest number of pitches thrown with 105.  The FCSL cuts players off at 100, but they are allowed to finish a batter that they start if they are at 99 pitches or lower.  Ard was at 98, but made every pitch he throw matter.

“He gave us a chance to win,” said manager Chuck Schall, “He had his best outing of the year when it meant the most.  I was really proud of that guy.”

The only run that Ard allowed came in the sixth inning as Deland pulled into the lead on a sacrifice pop fly to make the score 4-3.  The runner reached base on an error which is why it was unearned.

Winter Park would get that one run back and more in the bottom of the seventh inning.  After leaving a leadoff double stranded in the sixth inning, the Diamond Dawgs had the first two batters reach but saw them still out there with two away.  In danger of stranding two more runners on the evening, Jeff Korte (Illinois) belted a double over the head of the left fielder.  One run scored easily on the play while the second runner was safe on a close play at home which saw the ball bounce away from the Deland catcher.  Korte saw this and immediately hustled for third.  A throw came to third base but it was wild and trickled into the outfield, as Korte trotted home for the little-league inside the park home run.  The Diamond Dawgs were on top 6-4 after seven innings.

“I was rounding second base and I saw him throwing home,” said Korte, “I started going for third and saw it hit off the catcher and kept running to third.  The catcher made a bad throw and I started going home, I started running out of gas near the end but I made it.”

Korte’s stats from the postseason have been absolutely insane.  He is 9-for-22 which gives him a .409 batting average.  Six of those nine hits are doubles.  Seven doubles was the highest amount by a single Diamond Dawg in the regular season through 38 games and Korte has almost tied that in just five.  He also has eight RBIs which leads the team in the playoffs.

“That was fun,” said Schall, “Korte stepped up big there, we had runners at first and second and he went opposite field with it.  I looked out there and all of their players were on the ground like we just got out of a battle or something.”

The Diamond Dawgs would add one more run as Abraham Sequera (UNF) came home to score on a wild pitch to give Winter Park a three run cushion in the ninth inning.  Gage Warren (Daytona State) would come in for the save, his second of the postseason which secured a 7-5 victory.

“I think we’ve got a little bit of momentum right now,” said Schall, “It’s one game tomorrow, anything can happen.  I think by winning this game and knowing that we’ve got a good starter on the mound tomorrow that our guys will be really excited tomorrow.”

That good starter is JP Williams (Undecided) who will throw for Winter Park in game three.  He pitched in game one against the Leesburg Lightning and got a tough loss as he allowed only one run which was the winning run in a 1-0 game.

Game three tomorrow is the final day of the season.  It is the equivalent to game seven in the MLB.  The winner becomes the newest champion of the FCSL and gets a trophy while the team that loses walks away empty handed.  Game three is in Deland and begins at 7:00 p.m.  It is a game you don’t want to miss.

Ken Landis (UCF)