Winter Garden, FL- The Winter Garden Squeeze and the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs finished off the season series and this 3 game series on Monday morning starting at 11 AM. This game got through 3 full innings of baseball starting off with an explosion of both offenses as the Dawgs put up 4 in the first and the Squeeze answered with 5 of their own in the bottom half of the inning, the dawgs added another in the 3rd before the delay to tie this game. 

The delay lasted 90 minutes good enough to knock out Ryan Furey (Rollins) and end his day at 3 IP,4 H, 5 R, 5 BB, 3 K. Furey ran into some trouble in the first inning but was able to settle in nicely before the lightning it. For the Dawgs it was Joe Bellflower (Illinois Tech) who was pulled out before the lightning delay, his final stat line for the day was 2 IP, 5 H, 5 R 4 BB, 1 K. The Dawgs turned to Juan Mercado (Vassar) out of the pen before the delay and returned after again, Mercado went 4 IP, 1 H, 4 BB, 2 K. He was able to really turn this game around for the Dawgs pitching staff and shut down the Squeeze offense. 

The Dawgs opened up the scoring with a 4 spot in the top of the first inning when Isaac Nunez (Southeastern) scored on a sacrifice fly hit to center field by Matthew Coker (Embry-Riddle). Kade Faircloth (Newberry) kept the line moving with a RBI double that scored Sam Tanous (St Peters). A couple batters later David Baillo (Shorter) cashed in for the dawgs with a RBI single that scored Faircloth. A new face for the Diamond Dawgs came up big for them in Edbarry Guzman (Kaiser) with a RBI single that scored Roman Samson (Florida Tech) to take a 4-0 lead. 

The Squeeze answered right back with a crooked number of their own in the bottom of the 1st inning. Another new face put themselves on the map in this one when Ian Farrow (Florida Gulf Coast) hit a 2 run shot over the left field fence at Olympia to inch a bit closer. Todd Clay (Pensacola St) would then continue his amazing summer season with another RBI single scoring Santino Rao (Northwestern). Brandon Fields (Southeastern) followed Clays single with a 2 RBI double scoring both Clay and Tyler Dowdy (West Florida) to take a 5-4 lead over Winter Park. 

The Dawgs knotted this one up the very next inning in the top of the 2nd when Anthony Gonzalez (Stetson) was hit by a pitch in the helmet with the bases loaded bringing in Faircloth. 

In the top of the 7th inning when Aracena lifted a ball into center field deep enough for Caleb Adams (St Leo) to score and take the lead. The Dawgs added another run to the board when Coker hit a ball to the shortstop who went to third trying to get the out which allowed Nunez to score. The big inning was capped off with a Samson ground out to third that allowed Tanous to tap the plate extending the lead 8-5. 

Nunez kept his hot streak going in the top of the 8th with a RBI single into right field bringing in Guzman to make the score 9-5. 

The Diamond Dawgs have now swept the final series against this Winter Garden team and now sit at just a half a game behind Winter Garden for that crucial 3rd spot in the leagues standings trying to avoid the play in game. The Squeeze will now play Orlando at Lake Highland Prep on Tuesday with that game beginning at 7PM. As for the Dawgs they will be back at home on Tuesday night at 6:30 PM.

Christian Rapoza (Full Sail University)