SANFORD – The Winter Park Diamond Dawgs continue to slip in the standings after another loss Sunday evening, this time to the Sanford River Rats 5-2 to drop to 5-22 on the season. Time is starting to run out for the Diamond Dawgs on the season as they have just eight games scheduled, and one to potentially be made up. 

Winter Park is attempting to chase down either the DeLand Suns or Winter Garden Squeeze, but both have nine wins. 

As for Sunday’s contest, which was an abbreviated seven-inning contest after an original 5:00 p.m. start time was pushed back to around 7:30 p.m., the walks continued to hurt Diamond Dawg pitching once again. The starter, Ayden Tran (Indianapolis), walked seven batters in the first two innings, and the River Rats wasted no time getting on the board with a three-spot in the first inning. 

After Tran, the Winter Park pitchers did settle down, only giving up one earned run in the final four innings, but the offense never really could get going after scoring the first run of the game in the top of the fourth. It also seemed as if they lacked opportunities. Baserunners were at a premium for Winter Park all evening, and credit to Sanford, who used seven different pitchers in the game. All seven were effective. 

Adonys Velez (FIU) for Winter Park had two hits out of the leadoff spot, and Gabe Young (West Georgia) did notch a RBI, but other than that, the Diamond Dawgs just had five hits. The 4 through 9 batters for Winter Park went 0-for-14 in the contest. 

So, again, with about eight or nine games left on the Florida League schedule, the Diamond Dawgs have to make up about four games in the standings, and with each passing game, the next contest becomes increasingly more important. 

TJ French (University of Georgia)