The Winter Garden Squeeze’s pitching and defense shined, allowing just one hit, in a 3-0 shutout victory against DeLand Suns Thursday night in Winter Garden.

“Defensively this is the best we played,” said head coach Mike McDaniel. “(Cole) Steinmetz saved us a couple of times on some balls to his right and made every play. That’s something we need moving forward down the stretch toward playoffs. We need to play good defense because that's going to be the difference maker for us.”

There were a handful of defensive plays for the Squeeze that were jaw dropping. Steinmettz ended the second inning with a sliding back hand at third to help sit the Suns down in order. In center field, Garrett Byrd ranged over to his left to catch a ball at full extension on the run in the right-center field gap, that saved what looked to be extra bases and a run for DeLand. 

At shortstop, Titan Kamaka had a stellar day in the field, fielding multiple balls off his front foot and making perfect throws to first on the run. Kamaka’s best play was caught pop-up in shallow left-center field, where he fired a perfect throw to Tripp Landers at the plate for an inning ending double play in the fifth. Landers behind the dish hosed a runner that attempted to steal in the sixth. Anything the DeLand had brewing offensively seemed to be immediately shut-down by the defense of Winter Garden. However, the best play defensively came in the fourth inning.

With two away and a runner at second for DeLand, Damion Kenealy stepped up to the dish, trying to put a run on the board for the Suns. On a 1-2 pitch, Kenealy sent a rocket to the outfield that looked to be heading over the wall down the left field line. That was when Zack Stokes leaped up off the wall and brought back the two-run shot to end the inning, keeping DeLand scoreless.

“I couldn’t ask for anything better,” said starting pitcher Nicholas Rich. “These guys are awesome and they are all into the game. Anytime I slipped, they were there to back me up and it’s just great to have them behind me."

Rich turned in a great performance, notching his first win of the campaign in five and a third scoreless innings, allowing just the one hit. Rich only notched one strikeout, but when a defense was performing like it was, you don’t need the strikeouts.

“He really had his stuff early on,” said McDaniel. “He had the cutter going and the second time through we used the sinker a little bit to keep guys off balance, from getting good swings. He was the only guy that didn’t make the all-star team from our starting rotation and he’s just as good as the rest of them.”

What helped Rich was getting ahead of hitters with the best pitch in baseball: strike one. In the 19 hitters he faced, Rich fired in 12 first pitch strikes and kept his pitch count to just 71 pitches.

“I just wanted to get ahead and that was my mindset the whole time,” said Rich “Get ahead and give up some ground balls and fly balls because I got these guys behind me.”

Winter Garden scored their first run off a wild pitch in the third that allowed Ben Maskin to score. The next two runs came off the bat of Mike Bello in the fourth with a two RBI-single that brought around Todd Clay and Kamaka. Bello finished the game 2-2 with a walk and the two RBIs

With the win, the Squeeze are now tied with the Lightning at the top of the standings. Winter Garden will face off with the Suns for two more games Friday and Saturday, both at Conrad Park in DeLand. First pitch is set for 7pm EST.

Riley Kelton (Auburn University)