Florence Splits Sunday Twin Bill with Gateway
Published on May 20, 2018 under Frontier League (FL)
Florence Y'alls News Release
FLORENCE, Ky - The Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, salvaged a split of Sunday's doubleheader, winning the nightcap, 6-5, after dropping game one, 3-2, at UC Health Stadium. The game two win secured the series and pushed the Freedom back into first place in the West Division.
Despite taking the loss in game one, Freedom (6-3) starter, Jordan Kraus (1-2) turned in another strong pitching performance, sitting down the first ten batters he faced. The right-hander retired the Grizzlies (5-4) in order in five of his seven innings of work, and only faced four batters in another frame.
Offensively, the Freedom wasted no time starting the scoring, as Andre Mercurio plated Brandon Pugh with a first inning rbi-single to give Florence an early, 1-0, lead. One inning later, Keivan Berges made the score, 2-0, when he launched a mammoth home run off Will Anderson that nearly cleared the scoreboard in left field.
However, in the top of the fifth, Kraus surrendered a three-run homer to Johnathan Piron, his second of the year, giving the Grizzlies a, 3-2, lead they would not relinquish. Kraus was handed another tough luck loss, surrendering three earned runs on five scattered hits while striking out five in a complete game effort.
Gateway reliever, Ryan McSweeney (1-0) earned the win in relief, hurling 1.1 innings of scoreless baseball, allowing no hits and walking one. Kevin Simmons came on for the seventh and picked up his first save of the season, shutting the Freedom down in order to preserve the, 3-2, victory.
The finale was a back-and-forth affair that saw Florence strike for three in the bottom of the second. Xavier Turner singled to lead off the inning, and Keivan Berges drove him in with a double that just stayed fair down the right field line, giving Florence an early, 1-0, edge. Nick Crouse then followed with his first home run of the season, a no doubt about it blast over the left field wall that extended the Freedom's lead to, 3-0.
After a sharp trio of innings, Gateway broke through on Florence starter, Christian DeLeon in the top of the fourth. With the bases loaded, Terry McClure plated one with a hard grounder to second before Piron made it a one run game with an rbi-single. A wild pitch from DeLeon would bring in the tying run as the score was deadlocked at 3 after three and a half innings.
In the bottom of the fourth, Connor Crane followed a Crouse walk and Mike Morris sacrifice bunt with an rbi-single to right field that would give the Freedom another temporary, 4-3.
The Grizzlies jumped back in front, 5-4, in the fifth, courtesy a Blake Brown two-run double to the gap in left center off Freedom reliever, Tyler Gibson (1-0). Both runs were charged to DeLeon, who took the no decision in his Freedom debut that lasted 4.1 innings. Gibson would sit down the next two batters in a row, positioning himself for his first victory of the season.
In the deciding bottom of the fifth, an rbi-groundout from Berges after two consecutive singles from Mercurio and Jordan Brower knotted the score at 5. Subsequently, Nick Crouse put a bow on a stellar performance with a single to center that allowed Brower to score the go ahead run as Florence moved in front by the eventual, 6-5, final. Johnathon Tripp slammed the door in the ninth, tallying a strikeout en route to his first save of 2018.
The Freedom now have two days off before beginning a ten day road trip that starts with a doubleheader in Traverse City on Wednesday at 5:05 p.m.
The Florence Freedom are members of the Independent Frontier League and play all home games at UC Health Stadium located at 7950 Freedom Wayin Florence, KY. The Freedom can be found online at florencefreedom.com, or by phone at (859) 594-4487.
Frontier League Stories from May 20, 2018
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