July 23, 2010
The Winter Park Diamond Dawgs are back on top of the league after beating the Sanford River Rats and going on a three-game winning streak heading into Wednesday. Photo by Isaac Babcock
By Isaac Babcock
The Voice
The Winter Park Diamond Dawgs are back on top of the league after beating the Sanford River Rats and going on a three-game winning streak heading into Wednesday.
The two teams have been tangled at the top of the Florida Collegiate Summer League for the past two weeks, as they've run away with the top of the standings, ahead of the third place Leesburg Lightning (14-20) by 10 games.
But during those two weeks the Dawgs (23-9) and Rats (23-10) haven't been separated by more than a game and a half as they battle toward the end of the season.
Their face-to-face games have been especially dramatic, with the Rats winning 9-6 and the Dawgs winning 8-2 and 9-1 all within the span of two days.
And both teams have league leaders on offense, with Winter Park's Sam Kimmel hitting a league-leading .375 average, and slugger Josh Hutton hammering 4 home runs over the wall. Sanford's Tyler Benzel is just an RBI ahead of Winter Park's Alex Friedrich, leading the league at 24 and 23 RBIs, respectively.
On the pitcher's mound, the Orlando Suns' Steven Starbird has 40 strikeouts in 49 innings, good for a 4-1 record despite his team's 12-21 overall record.
In 32 innings pitched, Winter Park's Bobby Bolling has a 1.69 ERA with 24 K's.
At 7 p.m. this Thursday, July 22 the Dawgs take the first pitch at Orlando, while Sanford will take the first swing in DeLand at the same time.
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