By Kyle Coppola
Leesburg Lightning Head Back To FCSL Championship Series
The Leesburg Lightning are headed back to the FCSL Championship Series. A year after being crowned FCSL Baseball Champions, they would win in spectacular fashion! In an epic showdown, the Lightning staged a dramatic comeback against the Sanford River Rats, overcoming a 4-1 deficit to win 5-4 in extra innings and will face the DeLand Suns in the finals.
Drew Stubbs and Orlando Pena played pivotal roles in the victory, while Eustis High alum Tanner Walker delivered three crucial scoreless innings late in the game. The tension was palpable as the game headed into the bottom of the 9th inning with Sanford leading 4-3.
Trent Kelly’s perseverance paid off as he got on base, and Gabriel Santiago drew a walk. Riley Fitzgerald then came through with a clutch sacrifice fly, tying the game at 4-4 and sending it into extra innings.
After Sanford couldn’t deliver anything in the top of the 10th, all momentum was riding with Leesburg. In the bottom of the 10th, Jordy Oriach and Michael Furry set the stage brilliantly, both getting on base. An intentional walk to Ryan Jenkins loaded the bases with no outs. This paved the way for Orlando Pena to deliver a game winning single, scoring Oriach for a thrilling 5-4 victory!
Next up for the Lightning is the FCSL World Series against the DeLand Suns. This will be a 3 game series. Game 1 is Saturday night at 7 pm in Leesburg at Pat Thomas Stadium. Game 2 is in DeLand at 7 pm. If there is a need for game 3, it will be held at Pat Thomas Stadium in Leesburg on Monday night at 7 pm. Let’s keep the momentum going! Go Lightning! 🔥👏⚾️
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
