Beach Bums Sweep Pair from Freedom
Published on May 22, 2014 under Frontier League (FL)
Traverse City Beach Bums News Release
FLORENCE, KY - Trailing 1-0 in the third inning at the start of the day, the Traverse City Beach Bums managed to sweep a quasi-doubleheader from the Florence Freedom, 5-3 and 3-1, on Thursday night at UC Health Stadium, taking the series in the process.
In the resumption of Wednesday's suspended game, the Beach Bums were able to use some late offense to rally from an early 1-0 hole. Rusty Shellhorn took over for Patrick Merkling as the game resumed and fired 4.1 quality innings, yielding just a seventh-inning RBI double to Sam Eberle, giving the Freedom a 2-1 lead.
Traverse City had tied the game on a Jake Rhodes RBI double in the fifth inning against Adam Krebs. Trailing again in the eighth, the Beach Bums tied the game on a Jeff DeBlieux RBI groundout and took their first lead when Jose Vargas singled home Drew Rossi to make it 3-2. Florence would tie the game on a wild pitch in the last of the eighth, but Traverse City battled back to regain the lead in the ninth on a two-out, two-run single from Scott Woodward.
D.J. Johnson retired the side in order in the ninth to pick up his second save and make a winner out of Nate O'Bryan (1-0), who threw just one pitch in the game, but picked off a runner for the final out of the eighth. Daniel DeSimone (2-1) took the loss after allowing the two runs in the ninth.
In game two, Traverse City jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a Vargas RBI single, scoring Shaun Cooper. Florence would tie the game in the fourth thanks to Cole Miles RBI base knock against Alex Gillingham. The Freedom had multiple chances to score more, but Gillingham (1-1) utilized three double plays across his five innings to limit Florence to just the one run.
Vargas made a winner of Gillingham thanks to a two-run homer to right-center in the top of the sixth off of Dave Middendorf (1-1), who allowed the three runs in six frames. Ian MacDougall and Will Rankin combined to get the last six outs with Rankin striking out Jacob Tanis to end the game securing his first save of the year.
The two wins marked the first time this season that Traverse City has won back-to-back games and moved the team to 3-3 at the end of the season's first road trip. Florence fell to 4-2.
The Beach Bums will now head home for the home opener on Friday night against the Windy City Thunderbolts. Mike Devine (0-1, 1.42) will make the start for Traverse City against Windy City's Jake Fisher (1-0, 3.00). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at Wuerfel Park. Fans can listen to the broadcast starting at 6:45 p.m. on Classic Rock the Bear 98.1/107.1 and classicrockthebear.com.
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