- March 29, 2024
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A four-game series against the best South Korea has to offer made for an All-Star quality international battle on the Florida Collegiate Summer League diamonds last week.
The Sanford River Rats blasted the Korean National Collegiate Team 4-0 in the opener of FCSL vs. Korea, with Oviedo’s Andy Ward dominating on the mound, striking out six in five innings. But the Koreans came back swinging for game two, with Ko Bong Jae pitching a three-hit masterpiece as they blew out the FCSL All Star team 6-0, with Won Hyeok Jae smashing three hits and collecting three RBI.
That back and forth fight would swing to the Florida League in the next two games, as the All Star team won 3-0 in game three thanks to a combined two-hit shutout led by Devin Raftery, who struck out seven in three innings.
The final game ended in dramatic fashion as Clay Simmons smacked a walk-off single that would drive home Doug Teegarden to win it 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth.
As the Koreans pulled out of town, the FCSL went right back to the chase for the championship, with Winter Park far behind.
Twenty-eight games into their worst season in franchise history, the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs had split two nosedives with a brief leveling off in between. Nine games out of the league lead, their mathematical chances for a comeback in the regular season championship chase are dwindling.
But at the top of the league, it’s a different story, with the Altamonte Springs Boom and Sanford River Rats in an escalating battle to try to win it all. Separated by just half a game at the start of the week, the Boom and Rats are both on the Florida Collegiate Summer League’s longest winning streaks, at five and four games respectively. With three teams — the Leesburg Lightning included — about to blow through 20 wins on the season, it’s still anybody’s guess who will pull things off by the first week of August.
Winter Park High School grad Alex House pitched a six-strikeout gem over seven innings to lead the Rats to a 6-3 win over the Dawgs July 15, allowing just two runs in the process, neither of them earned. The resulting win gave House a 3-0 record on the season with a 1.71 ERA. His 31 strikeouts in just 36-2/3 innings nearly leads the league, with only three walks allowed in that time.
Meanwhile in that game the Rats put Dawgs’ pitchers on blast, launching a pair of homers thanks to slugging first baseman Hunter Melton and center fielder Jacob Wright. Smelling blood, the Rats attempted six stolen bases, though Dawgs catcher Jonah Girand gunned down two Rats in the process.
The result was another win for the Rats’ latest streak and another loss for the Dawgs just as they needed to turn around their season. Both teams got a long break over the weekend, extended by bad weather.
Thursday the Dawgs host the Boom at 7 p.m. The Rats host the Lightning at the same time. Friday the Dawgs host the Boom again at 7 p.m., with the Rats traveling to the Lightning at the same time.