Dawgs still hot

A rainout and a loss have shaken up the top of the Florida Collegiate Summer League standings, with the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs just a half a game behind the Leesburg Lightning at the start of the week.

B.J. Zimmerman continues to lead the league in hitting and homeruns, entering Tuesday with a .471 batting average and two dingers. He’s second in the league in RBI, with 11. Chad Modomo holds the third best ERA in the league at 2.04.

The Dawgs (8-3-1) fell 1-0 in their narrowest loss of the season on June 19 against Winter Haven, with the only run in the game scored in the third at bat of the first inning.

Modomo gave up that one run, but went on to pitch 6.2 innings of near-perfection, striking out four batters before handing the ball over to Reed Reznicek, who struck out three in 1.1 innings, and Chris Waltermire, who retired the side hitless in the ninth.

That pitching masterpiece wasn’t enough to give the Dawgs a win, as they watched Winter Haven pitcher Peter Miller strike out seven and only allow one hit in five innings of work. The Loggerheads, with the help of Brady Rodriguez, would go on to strike out nine and give up a combined three hits in the game.

The quiet bats of the Dawgs got their loudest in the fifth inning, when the Dawgs had two runners in scoring position with two outs, but a grounder to second ended things quickly.

Two rained-out games and a rained-out tie against Sanford in just one week slowed the Dawgs momentum, but they’ll be looking to get things going again this week. They played DeLand and Orlando at press time, and will face Winter Haven at 7 p.m. Thursday at Chain O’Lakes Stadium. They’ll return home at 7 p.m. Friday to host DeLand.