Winter Park Diamond Dawgs streak reverses course

A three-game skid had the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs reeling after a seven-game winning streak was snapped in dramatic fashion last week, but they came clawing back.

The Dawgs had risen into a tie for first place in the Florida Collegiate Summer League standings with a long string of wins over all of their rivals. That had pulled them from a tailspin that saw them just above a tie for fourth place.

But that streak came to a crashing halt against longtime thorn-in-their-side DeLand, which leveraged an unusually low-scoring pair of wins to sweep a doubleheader on its home diamond.

Three DeLand pitchers would combine in game two to two-hit the Dawgs July 12, in a 4-0 game that was shortened to seven innings.

That preceded a shocking 7-4 loss July 13 to the Orlando Monarchs, one of two teams that hadn’t defeated the Dawgs all season. The Dawgs were actually winning that game through the top of the eighth inning before the Monarchs went on a four-run spree that started with two outs and a strike on Albert Lefran. The Dawgs couldn’t come back from that devastating blow.

The Dawgs took sweet revenge on the hapless Sanford River Rats on July 14, teeing off on the Rats’ pitching in a 13-6 blowout. In a bold move, the Rats left in starter Mike Glassic for all nine of the earned runs he allowed in four innings of work, which sent his ERA into the stratosphere despite five strikeouts in the process.

Though the Dawgs’ hot-hitting Michael Danner picked up a hit and two RBIs in the game, his season-long league-leading batting average continued its slow tumble to .386. Most of the batting order picked up at least an RBI in the process, with Sean Trent and Tyler Rocklein batting 1.000 for the game.

After the break, the Dawgs will return to their home diamond at 7 p.m. on Thursday against league-leader Leesburg. At 7 p.m. on Friday they’ll take the first pitch visiting the Orlando Freedom.