The Winter Park Diamond Dawgs have not been this close to raising a championship trophy at Tropicana Field since 2006, when the team last won the Florida Collegiate Summer League wood-bat title.

A new breed of Dawgs are now just one game away from changing all that as Winter Park takes on the defending-champion Leesburg Lightning in St. Petersburg on Thursday. The college game will follow the 12:10 p.m. matchup between the Minnesota Twins and Tampa Bay Rays. Estimated start time for the FCSL Championship Game is 5 p.m.

Leesburg, coached by former Major League Baseball pitcher Frank Viola, also took home the title in 2007.

For the Diamond Dawgs, who have garnered a Top-20 ranking this season among the nation’s other summer league baseball teams, it’s been quite a turnaround after winning just 10 games a year ago. Winter Park earned the No. 1 seed in the five-team league with a 28-11 regular season record while Leesburg (19-23) comes in as the No. 3 seed.

Although the Leesburg roster features eight players who have previously played in an FCSL title game, the Diamond Dawgs feature the top two hitters in the league in batting champ Sam Kimmel and runner-up LB Dantzler.

Winter Park, coached by Clint Chrysler, also has home run leader Brad Hutton in the lineup and the league’s saves leader in Chandler Jagodzinski to call upon from out of the bullpen.

The Lightning are led by the team’s all-time wins leader Kyle Wahl, along with Danny Baatz and Nick DelGuidice.

– 2010 Season Statistics @ Florida League –

– (Contact Orlando Sports Central at JC@OrlandoSportsCentral.com) –