News

By, Zack Smolen

 

The Contenders:

#4 Leesburg Storm (11-11-2)

#5 Seminole County Snappers (10-10-2)

 

Starters:

Carson Pillsbury (3-2, 6.75 14K)

Dylan Ross (1-0, 0.60, 23K)

 

Regular Season Results:

Tie 1-1 (7/4), Storm 2-1 W (7/11), Snappers 7-3 W (7/30)

 

With the regular season now behind us, it’s time for the real competition to start! The Leesburg Storm will host a playoff game in their inaugural season against a Snappers team that has played better than their record all season long. This will be a tremendous first-round matchup, with the teams deadlocked against each other in the regular season, each winning, losing and tying a match against the other.

 

Matchup On the Mound

While it may look like the Snappers have an inherent starting pitching advantage at a glance of the stats, a deeper look will show that this is a much more even matchup. Carson Pillsbury (Santa Fe) is one of the brightest young pitchers in this league, featuring a low-90s fastball and a curve that will buckle the knees of even the most experienced hitters. He had a rough go of it his last outing of the season against the River Rats, but shined on the mound the game before against a hot Diamond Dawgs offense, scattering just five hits over five shutout frames.

On the other side, Dylan Ross (Northwest Florida St.) has been a sight to behold this season, keeping offenses at bay with an astounding 0.80 WHIP and a .100 batting average against mark. He’s also red-hot at the moment, allowing just a single run in his last eight innings on just three hits and a whopping 12 strikeouts. Storm manager Rich Billings will be familiar with the stuff of the former Lightning arm, but that may not be enough to create any sort of edge against the Snappers’ ace.

 

Keys to Victory

Starting with the home team, it is imperative for the Storm to get their offense clicking early against Seminole County, a team capable of stringing together hits at any part of their order. A lead will make it much easier for Pillsbury to settle down and play his game of attacking opposing hitters with confidence. Leesburg must get things clicking at the bottom of the lineup behind batting title winner Jeff Mejia (Maine) and MVP candidate Alex Freeland (UCF) who are masters of reaching base and scoring once they’re on the paths.

For Seminole County, their main focus should be to wear down Storm pitching with their offense. Ross will almost certainly give this team what they need from a pitching perspective, but their lineup hasn’t scored as much as their .282 team average may indicate. What they can do to get around that is continually get on base as they have all season and try and get into the Leesburg bullpen, which is solid, but an aspect of their team that isn’t as strong as the Snappers.

 

Verdict

This will be a tightly contested matchup that will be decided based on who can score the most at the start of the game. The Storm and Snappers have the top-2 bullpen arms in the league in Zach Henderson (Daytona St.) and Dalton Ross (Bryan) who can come in to shorten any ballgame with their nasty stuff. Whoever can pull off a better offensive performance against their opponent’s starting pitcher will book themselves a date with the top-seeded Leesburg Lightning on Tuesday.