Daily Commercial Season Preview
Leesburg, Fla. – The final weekend in January is approaching which brings with it the start of the 2019 Lake-Sumter State College baseball season.
The final four days of the 2018 regular season brought with it some of the most exciting baseball Lake-Sumter has seen in quite a while from its Lakehawks. Back to back wins against conference foes Seminole State and Florida State College – Jacksonville set up a meeting with Santa Fe College with playoff implications on the line. A 4-3 victory over the Saints, the then NJCAA No. 1 team in the nation, punched LSSC's ticket to the playoffs.
Facing off against St. Johns River, the magic was all but over. Lake-Sumter knocked off the No. 3 seeded Vikings in round one of the Mid-Florida Conference Tournament by run rule, 13-2. The Lakehawks season ended in a best of three series against Central Florida in round two.
A renewed sense of success comes with the 2019 season. Head Baseball Coach, Rich Billings will return 13 players including Second Team All-Conference selection Robbie Scott. After hitting .325 and stealing 17 bases, Scott will look to top those numbers this year. Another returning member of the lineup is Alan Alonso who led the Lakehawks in home runs while driving in 30 runs with a .393 on-base percentage.
Cameron Recny arrives for his sophomore campaign with the most experience tossing 73 innings pitched and a team leading 59 strikeouts from 2018. He will be one of the leaders to what is otherwise a young staff who will be out to prove themselves in the first weekend of action.
A plethora of newcomers are set to join this solid core with 11 new faces on the roster. "We have a pretty even mix of freshmen and sophomores this year," Billings said. "It's the first time in a few seasons that we haven't been lopsided. Our returning players got a taste of some success last year and I think they are ready to move forward this spring. We returned almost everyone from our starting lineup. Our freshmen have stepped in and transitioned well."
Friday marks the 2019 season opener at home against Polk State who spent some of last season receiving national votes. Last year's opener against the Eagles was a 14 inning affair in which the Lakehawks came out on the wrong end, 7-6. It will be a quick turnaround for LSSC who will host Northwest Florida State for a double header on Saturday. The two teams split their two game series in 2018.
March will bring about the start of conference play when the Lakehawks head to St. John's to begin a four game series Saturday the 4th. The Vikings finished the season third in the MFC and are coming off a 31-18 record in 2018. April 22 marks the final contest of the regular season and will pit Santa Fe against Lake-Sumter in Leesburg. Two of the top four teams from the MFC last season on the final day of 2018 could mean postseason implications once again.
The expectations are greater than the 19-31-1 record and postseason appearance from last year and Coach Billings has his team ready to go. "We have a lot of work to do this spring and we are going to have to go through some very tough teams right out of the gate in order to accomplish our goals" said Billings. "We have a chance to be very good on the offensive side. We had 110 stolen bases last year as a team so we are going to look for that to be a big part of our game this year as well. On the mound our pitchers have to avoid ball four. If they can minimize the free bases we can also be pretty good on the mound. I'm definitely looking forward to watching our guys compete this spring. I believe we will be an exciting team to watch."