Dawgs slowing down

After running away with the league lead midway through the season, the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs are slowly being reeled in by the Sanford River Rats.

Now with the gap closed to less than three games as of press time, the Dawgs are looking to turn around their stumbling season just a few days after they won 10 straight games.

During last week's Winter Park offensive ace in the hole, Sam Kimmel, has dropped from batting nearly .450 to hitting a still-impressive .400.

But even Kimmel's prowess at the plate hasn't been enough for the Dawgs, who let the former league basement dweller DeLand Suns hammer them for a 6-5 loss Monday night.

Before that the River Rats trounced the Dawgs 5-1 on Friday, in one of the lowest scoring games the Dawgs have had all year.

That remarkably low score on the Dawgs' part came thanks to a dominating performance from the mound by Zachary Haile, who gave up only three hits in seven innings to pick up his second win of the season. His cumulative ERA in just more than 15 innings of work is .57.

Sanford's Tyler Benzel continues to be a threat at the plate, hammering 13 RBIs in just 14 games, including two home runs. But in the last three games, he's come up empty at the plate, only getting on base once with a walk in 12 at bats.

Coming up this weekend, Winter Park hosts Leesburg at 7 p.m. Friday in Alfond Stadium. Sanford hosts DeLand at 7 p.m. Friday in Sanford Memorial Stadium. The two teams will meet each other with the league lead possibly at stake at 7 p.m. Monday in Winter Park.