Dawgs Walk Off Lightning on Perfect Bunt

WINTER PARK, Fla. – The Winter Park Diamond Dawgs showed plenty of resilience Tuesday night, rallying late before walking off the Leesburg Lightning 4-3 at Alfond Stadium.

The Diamond Dawgs secured the victory when Skyler Jersey laid down a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the seventh inning, allowing Canyon Marcewicz to score the winning run and cap a dramatic comeback.

Winter Park jumped in front early when Garrett Frost lined an RBI triple down the left-field line in the first inning, scoring Roberto Odor for a 1-0 lead. Leesburg answered with runs in the third and fifth innings to take a 2-1 advantage.

The Diamond Dawgs responded in the sixth. Hutson Guinn scored on a throwing error to tie the game before Evan Taveras followed with an RBI single to give Winter Park a 3-2 lead.

Leesburg answered in the top of the seventh, tying the game at 3-3 on a sacrifice fly. With one final opportunity in the bottom half, head coach Jim Newlin called for Jersey to square around and bunt. The strategy worked to perfection as Marcewicz raced home with the winning run, sending the Diamond Dawgs streaming out of the dugout to celebrate the 4-3 victory.

Nick Sakowski earned the win after recording the final three outs. Anthony Filice and Daniel Irizarry combined to keep Winter Park within striking distance throughout the night.

Frost finished with a triple, an RBI and two runs scored, while Taveras drove in the go-ahead run in the sixth and Marcewicz crossed the plate with the game-winning run. The victory improved the Diamond Dawgs to 14-16-1 and moved them into a tie for fourth place in the Florida Collegiate Summer League standings.

Justin Baltes (University of Central Florida)