Winter Park – The contest between the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs and DeLand Suns was all knotted up at nine headed into the final frames between two teams in desperate need of wins. 

With the game tied heading into the bottom of the eighth inning, Joel Collado (Rhode Island) added onto his big night with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to drive home Gabe Young (West Georgia). Collado recorded five RBIs in the game with two huge two-run hits early in the game. 

It was a wild roller coaster affair as DeLand scored first, but the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs answered back with a four run bottom of the first. After that, DeLand put up a four-spot in the fourth inning to take a 9-4 lead. Winter Park then went on to score six unanswered runs to improve to 3-18, and may have potentially unlocked their offense, which had been struggling.

However, the biggest factor in this game was the Diamond Dawgs ability to put up zeroes in the later frames to keep the DeLand Suns at nine runs. Harrison Miller (Saint Leo) came on in the sixth inning with a runner on second and nobody out. He was able to get out of that inning unscathed, and went on to throw three quality innings, not giving up any runs and inducing two critical double plays. 

Matthew Demetree (Thomas)  came on in the top of the ninth to earn the save, and it was Alex Espaillat (Alabama State) who made a phenomenal play at shortstop to end the game.

A total all-around effort from Winter Park is exactly what the doctor ordered for this struggling team. Young was 1-3 with three runs scored and an RBI. Evan Griffis (Arkansas State), the cleanup batter, went 2-4 with an RBI as well. 

The Diamond Dawgs will look to keep the momentum alive in this pivotal three-game series against the DeLand Suns, and game two will take place on Friday at 6:00 p.m. EST at Alfond Stadium. 

TJ French (University of Georgia)