Freedom Rolled by Rascals in Opener
June 22, 2018 - Frontier League (FL)
Florence Y'alls News Release
O'FALLON, Mo - On the heels of a long travel day, the Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, never found their footing in a lopsided, 9-0, loss to the River City Rascals on Friday night at Carshield Field.
Freedom (18-19) starter, Zach Kirby (0-4) ran into trouble early and often as the Rascals (20-16) plated eight of their nine runs in their first four at-bats. With the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the first, Braxton Martinez delivered his first of two two-run singles as River City raced out to an early, 2-0, edge.
Rascals southpaw starter, Hector Hernandez (6-0) did not surrender his first hit until the top of the fourth, when Andre Mercurio tested the limits in deep right field by sending a line-drive off the tall wall before getting thrown out at second in an attempt to turn the single into a double. Florence would total five hits off Hernandez, but failed to string any of them together in the shut-out loss.
River City doubled their lead with two outs in the bottom of the third, courtesy another Martinez two-run single with runners on second and third. Not done scoring in the frame, Clint Freeman drove-in Martinez with an ensuing double as Florence fell behind, 5-0. River City did their best work with two outs in the ballgame, scoring seven of their nine runs when they were down to their last out in the inning. The home team did the most damage in the fourth, however. Zach Lavy led-off the frame with a big-fly to left-center before Paul Kronenfeld followed a Kevin Suarez single with a two-run blast of his own as the score became, 8-0, Rascals. Martinez continued a banner night at the dish with the third and final River City homer in the seventh, a solo shot that made it a nine-run game.
Kirby would be relieved on the mound by Tyler Gibson with one out in the bottom of the seventh, finishing his night having spanned 6.1 innings while surrendering nine earned runs on 14 hits with two walks and two strikeouts in the loss. Gibson would tally an inning and two thirds of relief, holding the Rascals scoreless and notching one punch-out.
Hernandez was efficient in the marvelous complete-game victory, shutting Florence out while scattering five hits and fanning seven. The lefty started the ninth-inning having thrown just 86 pitches, and saw the first Freedom base-runner reach third base in his final inning of work.
These two-teams will square off in the middle-game of the weekend series on Saturday night at CarShield Field. Florence will send right-hander Steve Hagen to the bump opposite righty Josh Kimborowicz of the Rascals with first pitch slated for 6:35 p.m. CT.
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