Dawgs barely holding onto league lead

A surprise hot streak has upended the league as the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs have watched the Sanford River Rats chase them down in the Florida Collegiate Summer League standings this week.

One player slugged a mammoth 2.660 on Monday night to close the gap.

Nine straight wins by the Rats have brought them within half a game of the league lead after they watched the Dawgs win 10 in a row earlier in the season.

Now the two teams are neck and neck heading into the final month of the season, and it's anybody's ballgame.

The two teams' most recent game brought them to within a half game of each other, with Sanford unleashing a torrent of runs on the Dawgs in a 17-5 blowout on Winter Park's home field. That pummeling started early on but ended with the Rats scoring eight runs in the seventh and eighth inning.

Sanford outfielder Brandon Thomas had a career game against Winter Park, hammering two homeruns out of Alfond Stadium while knocking home five runners. Thomas hadn't hit a homerun all season until that night. He went 2-for-3 and picked up three more walks, earning a .833 on base percentage.

Rats outfielder Jabari Bash knocked in three runners himself, going 2-for-2 on the night.

Winter Park went through five pitchers in the outing, with starting pitcher Chad Allen, who had won four straight games leading up to the contest, giving up seven earned runs on seven hits. It was his first start against Sanford for the year.

The two teams will meet for the third time this week at 7 p.m. Thursday at Alfond Stadium in Winter Park. With a matchup between the two already scheduled during press time, the two teams may have swapped the league lead by the time they meet again.