Squeeze Fall in Regular Season Finale, Prepare for Playoffs
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 11 | 3 |
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1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | X | 12 | 11 | 0 |
WINTER PARK, Fla. — The Winter Garden Squeeze (17-17) closed the regular season with a 12-7 loss to the Winter Park Diamond Dawgs (15-18-1) on Saturday at Alfond Stadium.
The victory secured the Diamond Dawgs a postseason berth and a play-in game against the DeLand Suns on Monday.
For the second straight game in the series, the road team struck first. Edwin Melendez lined an RBI single to right field to give the Squeeze a 1-0 lead. Josh Schaller later drew a bases-loaded walk to extend the advantage to 2-0.
Winter Park answered in the bottom of the first when Garrett Frost reached on an error, allowing Roberto Odor to score.
The Squeeze added to their lead in the third inning. Alex Galan ripped an RBI triple into the right-center field gap before Melendez collected his second RBI of the afternoon with another single, stretching Winter Garden's lead to 4-1.
The Diamond Dawgs responded in the bottom half of the inning. Huston Gwinn drove in a run with an RBI triple, and Frost followed with an RBI single to cut the deficit to 4-3.
Mason Mojicia tied the game at 4-4 in the fourth inning with an RBI single.
Neither team scored again until the seventh inning.
Winter Garden briefly reclaimed the lead when Landon Towns opened the inning with a single and later scored on Efren Blanco's sacrifice fly, making it 5-4.
The advantage was short-lived as the Diamond Dawgs erupted for seven runs in the bottom of the inning.
Gwinn started the rally with an RBI single that scored Skyler Jersey. Jacob Pearl followed with a two-run single to put Winter Park ahead 7-5.
Anthony Vizzinni, who entered as a pinch hitter for Mojicia, made an immediate impact with a two-run double into the left-center field gap to extend the lead to 9-5. Canyon Marcewicz capped the outburst with a two-run single, giving the Diamond Dawgs an 11-5 advantage.
The Squeeze scored twice in the eighth inning, but Winter Park answered with a run in the bottom half to secure the 12-7 victory and punch its ticket to the postseason.
Despite the loss, Winter Garden enters the playoffs as the No. 2 seed and will host the Sanford River Rats in Game 1 of the Florida Collegiate Summer League semifinals on Tuesday at Horizon Park. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Zach Moore (University of Florida)