Winter Park – The Winter Park Diamond Dawgs improved to 6-22 on the 2025 summer Thursday evening, as they pitched a shutout against the Leesburg Lightning, and won by a score of 5-0.

It took just three pitchers for Winter Park to complete the feat. Nick Wilson (Saint Leo) started the game, and recorded the win after going 5.1 strong innings, and departing the game with just a one-run lead. Wilson induced two huge double plays during his outing, and limited walks to just two batters, which has been a struggle for the Diamond Dawgs pitching staff this season.

Wilson went out for the sixth inning, but was pulled when two batters reached base, and the first reliever used was Nick Sakowski (Florida Southern). The first pitch Sakowski threw was a hard grounder to third that ended up being an inning-ending double play. The Diamond Dawgs led 1-0 at that point after scoring in the first inning thanks to a Joel Collado (Rhode Island) RBI single. 

Winter Park added another insurance run in the sixth to lead 2-0. And then, thanks to a couple of defensive mishaps by Leesburg, Winter Park was able to scratch across another three runs in the bottom of the seventh to put the game out of reach. Pierce Glading (Georgia Southwestern) had a big double in the inning that set up runners on second and third, which eventually came around to score. The Diamond Dawgs did a good job all night of putting the ball in play—only six strikeouts collectively as a team is way down from their average of nearly 10 per game.

Luis Rivero (Saint Leo) was 2-3 on the night and was the only player in the game to have multiple hits. 

With a 6-22 record, Winter Park is still at the bottom of the Florida League standings, and with eight games left on their schedule, will have to make up about four games if they want to have a shot at the Florida League Wild Card game. 

The second of a three-game set with Leesburg will take place Friday night at Pat Thomas Stadium. First pitch is set for 7:00 p.m. EST. 

TJ French (University of Georgia)