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Belter Bullpen Shuts out Freedom Again to Even the Series

June 30, 2018 - Frontier League (FL) - Normal CornBelters News Release


NORMAL, Ill. - The Normal CornBelters (19-22) have lost nine one-run games this season, but during game two of Jose Canseco weekend presented by the Town of Normal, they flipped the script to take a 2-1 victory over the Florence Freedom (20-23) on Saturday night.

Once again the Belter bullpen shutout the Freedom. While his signing was overshadowed by Canseco, who also signed on Friday, Tyler Frohwirth made his CornBelter debut in the sixth. The sidearmer struck out the first batter he faced and kept Florence off the board.

Nick Bozman (2-0) followed with his sixth straight scoreless outing in the seventh to earn his second win of the year. Jonathan de Marte was the next arm out and he threw a perfect eighth to maintain the 2-1 lead. Billy Horn then used the second sidearmer in Antony Herrera to close out the ninth and earn his fourth save.

"It was a great time to get Frohwirth in the game. He came in and did his thing. Boz came in and got two lefties out, which he has a trouble against lefties his last couple outings, but earlier in the year. It was good to see him (Bozman) get a win tonight and de Marte and Herrera did their thing to close the door, " said Horn.

The CornBelters scored the eventual winning run in the seventh. Andrew Godbold and Tony Holton knocked back-to-back singles to start. A sac fly later, Holton stole second and Godbold then scampered home on the throw down by the Freedom catcher to score.

"Against a good ballclub (Florence) like that, a very fundamentally sound club, we had to do something. You can't always rely on the big two-out hits so we had Tony (Holton) in motion and Godbold got a good read off of third."

Mark Hendricks was the given the start in game two after sliding into the rotation after Matt Portland was signed by the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday. He isn't new to starting this season as he started at Gateway earlier in the year. Hendricks pitched is way out of trouble multiple times in his five innings of work. A starter by trade, the righty limited the Freedom to just one run and only five hits while striking out two in his second start on the season.

"He (Hendricks) threw a lot of strikes, got ahead in a lot of counts tonight. Mark pitched for Pasky (Pascual Santiago) last year and I worked with him a little bit over in the offseason. He is a guy that can give six, seven, eight innings and no problem. We figured shut him down after five, 91 pitches tonight, that was more than enough, we had a full bullpen tonight."

After not scoring until the last inning of the series opener, Normal got on the board right away. On day of two of Jose Canseco weekend, he was tagged as the leadoff man. The former major leaguer again lost the battle on a 2-2 count and struck out. Derrick Loveless gave Normal the early on a sac fly that scored Justin Fletcher who doubled down the line in right.

Tomorrow is the third and final day of Jose Canseco weekend where he will serve as the CornBelters designated hitter in the series finale. First pitch is at 6:05 p.m. tomorrow.

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