Post Season Recap

Tangelos Shock the Monarchs

The Sanford Monarchs travel to Bishop Moore as the top seed of the Futures League to face off against the Winter Garden Tangelos. The Tangelos came into the game as huge underdogs against the Monarch but at a neutral site anything could happen. The Tangelos kicked off the game in the first inning with back to back 2 out doubles by Matthew Miller (Eckerd College) and Julio Montes (Asa College) to drive in the first runs of the game. The Tangelos pushed across 3 more runs in the top of the second inning as coming off of singles from Sebastian Rolon (York College) and Hunter Cole (Berry College) to push the Tangelos lead to 4-0. The Monarchs finally responded in the second inning as two runs come across due to a throwing error from the Tangelos pitcher Jonathan Montes.  The Tangelos pushed across one more run in the top of the third inning coming from a Monarch error to make the score 5-2 going into the bottom of the fourth inning. A Matt Levenson (Winthrop University) two out two run RBI double in the bottom of the third inning brought the game to a 5–4 score with the Tangelos in the lead. The score remained the same until the Monarchs tied the game in the sixth inning where Matt Levenson came through from the Monarchs again driving in another run to tie the game at 5. The Tangelos came up clutch in the top of the ninth inning to take the lead after a lead off hit by pitch was driven in after Jarret Riffle reached on a throwing error by the Monarchs third basemen. Ryan Bradley was able to shut the door the Tangelos in the bottom of the ninth as he struck out the final two batters of the inning to give the Tangelos the victory and a Futures League Championship appearance.  

Freedom’s Hot Start Sends Them to Finals

With the Tangelos clinching the first spot in the Finals of the Futures league championship the Winter Park Freedom and the Lake Mary Cudas faced off for the final spot in the championship game. The first four innings went smoothing for Michael Glenn (FSCJ) and the Freedom as he allowed no runs in the first four innings pitched. The offense was on fire early for the Freedom as a Alex Sexton (Queens University) grand slam in the first inning game the Freedom a 4-0 lead in the first inning. The scoring continued for the Freedom after Hunter Todd (Catonsville Community College) drove in two on a RBI double and later scored pushing the Freedoms lead to 7-0. Though the Cudas were able to push across 2 runs throughout the game the combination of Micheal Glenn, Matt Wheeler (Bryant and Stratton College), and William Bowden (UCF) were able to hold the early 7 run lead that they were given to send the Freedom to the Futures League Championship game. 

Freedom’s Fourth Inning Leads to Victory

On a beautiful day Tuesday morning the Winter Garden Tangelos faced off against the Winter Park Freedom to see who would be crowned the champion of the Futures League. The Tangelos started the scoring in the top of the first inning after a sacrifice fly by Erick Hernandez (Galveston College) brought in Hunter Cole to give the Tangelos the 1-0 lead in the first inning. The Freedom took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning after Jaren Potts (Seminole State) and Kelvin George (Trinity Baptist College) drove in runs on singles. The Tangelos extended their lead by one run in the third inning as Rody White drove in a run with a single to make the score 3-1. Down two in the top of the fourth inning the Tangelos best hitter all year, Julio Montes, came up clutch with a 3 run home run that was launched over the fence out in left center to completely sway the momentum back to the Tangelos in the fourth inning as the score moved to 4-3. The Freedom responded to the 3 run bomb in the bottom of the fourth inning by putting up a 6 spot in the inning. All 6 of these runs came after a controversial call on the field where the umpired ruled a batter safe as the Tangelos center fielder came up just short in a diving attempt for a fly ball. Going into the top of the eighth inning the score was 12-6 with the Freedom enjoying the large lead. The Tangelos tried to fight back in the inning as Erick Hernandez drove in two on a RBI single and later scored on a Colin McMahon double to cut the lead to just 3 for the Freedom. After a hit by pitch loaded the based with just one out, Freedom closer Harry Storch III (Lawrence Technological University) came in to shut the door. Storch struck out the final two batters of the inning to get out of the bases loaded jam untouched. Storch then faced the minimum in the top of the inning as the game ended on a double play that crowned the Winter Park Freedom the champions of the Future’s League.