River Rats Win Over Orlando

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SANFORD, Fla. (June 15, 2011) – The Sanford River Rats notched a 7-3 win over the Orlando Freedom in the two teams’ first meeting of the year at Historic Sanford Memorial Stadium on Tuesday night.

“It all starts with the leadoff guy,” River Rats Head Coach Stephen Piercefield said. “Execution is all we preach. We can’t control outcomes. We’re able to continue to get guys in scoring position and tonight we were able to drive them in.”

Leadoff hitter Alex Mendez (South Florida) got the night started with a first-pitch single, a steal (his sixth of the season), and a run scored on a wild pitch - all in the first inning.

“Offensively we swung the bats well,” Piercefield said. “[Orlando starting pitcher] Corben Madden (Seminole State College) is a quality pitcher who keeps you off-balance. Our guys were able to make an adjustment and put some more guys on base and put some pressure on them.”

TJ Gavlik (North Florida) scored on an RBI triple from Austin Liput (USC Upstate) in the third to make it 2-1 in Sanford’s favor.

Gavlik and Mendez also had runs in the seventh, a four-run affair that broke the game open for the River Rats. Dan Haverstick (Rhode Island) scored Gavlik on a single and Liput scored Mendez on a sacrifice fly to make it 4-1 before Ian MacGeorge (Embry-Riddle) launched an 0-1 pitch over the left field wall for the second two-run Rats homer in as many games.

“The guy owned me three at-bats before that,” MacGeorge said, who struck out the at-bat prior. “He had me off-balance all night, but then he just kind of left it up and I got a good part of the bat on it.”

“He got a pitch up in the zone and didn’t miss it,” Piercefield said. “It’s always nice to see your guys have that kind of success and it was able to propel us to a victory tonight.”

Catcher Ryan Woodrey (Nova Southeastern) capped the Rats’ scoring with a run scored on a wild pitch in the eighth. Orlando (1-9) added two more runs in the ninth before a double play and a fly out ended the game.

Sanford starter JR Edwards (Lehigh) earned the win for his six innings of work.

“Another nice job on the mound from Edwards,” Piercefield said. “He went six innings and gave up one run. He did a great job and helped us keep the bullpen fresh for a long week.” Edwards also fanned five and issued zero walks.

Brandon Cowan (Lincoln Memorial) is the probable starter for Sanford (4-5) in their next game at DeLand’s (4-5) Melching Field at Conrad Park Thursday night. First pitch is slated for 7pm.