Diamond Dawgs on a downward spiral

A wildly surging DeLand Suns team has blasted its way up the ladder to just two games short of the Florida League lead this week, while the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs have plummeted into the basement.

The Dawgs (7-12) were looking listless after losing back-to-back games against the Sanford River Rats (13-6) by a combined scoring differential of 27-11. But they showed some life with Trevor Tinder on the mound, grabbing a rare road win to seemingly right their fortunes.

But that game on Thursday night, which featured just two hits by the Dawgs, was just a blip on an otherwise uninterrupted downward trajectory for Winter Park. The Dawgs scored their winning runs on a wild pitch and a fielder’s choice. Tinder, who pitched six scoreless innings and didn’t manage a decision, struck out six to grab a rare road win for the Dawgs.

Saturday night the Dawgs went 17-innings deep against the Altamonte Springs Boom in a heartbreaker loss that featured a comeback by the Boom, a comeback by the Dawgs, a two-out, bottom-of-the-ninth-inning Boom homerun to tie the game, followed by seven scoreless innings, and finally a walk-off sacrifice fly to end it all in the bottom of the 17th with a 6-5 score. In the last eight innings, the Dawgs managed just two hits, striking out 15 times over the course of the game.

Monday night the Suns (11-8) opened up their game against the Dawgs with a six-run barrage before cruising to a 9-3 win that featured none of the surprises of Saturday night. Winter Park’s Sam Martin blasted his first homerun of the season, but by then the game was long since decided.

The Dawgs’ languid hitting may be to blame, with the team averaging a league second worst .243, with the league’s second worst on-base percentage at .336 and the league’s second most strikeouts at 154 in just 19 games, averaging more than eight batters getting fanned every game. On the batting leaderboard spanning the league’s six teams, Winter Park’s best hitter, Brooks Morgan, is 16th place, hitting .295. The Dawgs batters crack the top 10 in almost no categories.

On the pitcher’s mound the record has been slightly better, with the team mid-pack on every major pitching category except one: their win-loss record, which as of the start of the week was the worst in the FCSL.

The biggest contributor to their knack for giving up big runs could be their pitching staff’s propensity for giving up big hits. Though two teams have allowed more hits and runs than the Dawgs, they’ve given up more homeruns than any other team, with 13 in 19 games, and have the second highest slugging percentage against them at .370.

Meanwhile the Sanford River Rats continue to dominate the league, though the Suns have rapidly caught up in the past week. The Rats are two games ahead as the season nears the halfway mark.

Wednesday night all the teams saw action at press time. Tonight, Thursday, the Dawgs host the Winter Garden Squeeze (8-11) at 7 p.m. with Justin Kortessis the likely starter. On Tuesday after a few days on the road the Dawgs return home to face the Leesburg Lightning at 7 p.m. Both home games will be at Bishop Moore High School.