FL Florence Y'alls

Freedom Sweep Kings – Fly To Best Record In The League

by Chris Meiman
Published on July 9, 2005 under Frontier League (FL)
Florence Y'alls


The Florence Freedom cemented their amazing first half at home with a sweep over the West Division leading Kalamazoo Kings, complete with a thrilling come from behind win Friday night, 7-6. The Florence team led 5-2 going to the 6th inning before starter Jason Brunke coughed up the advantage. Brunke failed to earn his first win in a Florence uniform in his fourth start. Going 5 2/3 innings and giving up 5 earned runs on 8 hits and striking out 2 does not bode well for keeping his starting spot much longer. The Freedom offense came to the team's rescue. After Kalamazoo took the lead 6-5 in the top of the 9th inning, Florence had a come back of its own. Joe Holland's bases loaded walk scored pinch runner Brandon Cornell with the tying run and Wally Quigg drove in Scott Pickens with the game winning run. Ted Rowe picked up his fourth win without defeat and lowered his ERA to 2.03. Florence's 8-1 home stand was amazing in itself, but that 5 of the 8 wins came against teams in first place when the series began is even more amazing. Florence now sits alone atop the Frontier League's Eastern Division, a full three games ahead of the tamed Washington Wild Things and four in front of the toothless Evansville Otters. Kalamazoo has now lost four in a row and has dropped from first into a tie for second with Rockford, a game and a half behind River City in the Western Division.

Florence's sweep over Kalamazoo was marked with a blowout victory Thursday and a close encounter Wednesday. Florence was able to overcome a 6-2 3rd inning deficit by outscoring the Kings 15-1 over the remaining innings. Darin Kinsolving clubbed a three run home run and light hitting shortstop Josh Sanchez hit his first career grand slam. Those moon shots were part of Florence's four home run attack which also included Kyle Geswein's 11th long ball and Mike Dennison's league leading 15th home run. Curt Moenter was a savior for Florence, pitching six innings of one hit, one run baseball with 8 strikeouts in relief of Mark Harris, who had little to offer. It was Moenter's second win without defeat since joining the Freedom. Pitching 2 innings and giving up 6 earned runs, Harris was matched by Kings starter Josh Beshears. Named an All-Star earlier in the week and coming off a 9 inning, one hit shutout, Beshears didn't make it out of the 4th inning, giving up 7 hits and 5 runs. On Wednesday, Trevor Hall hit his 12th home run of the season in the first inning and Jason Bowlin made it stand up as Florence defeated Kalamazoo 3-1. Bowlin was amazing, pitching a nearly flawless eight innings, only marred by a second inning home run by Kings DH Tim Baywal. Bowlin struck out six in raising his record to 5-1 and lowering his ERA to 3.48. Ted Rowe allowed a hit in pitching the 9th to pick up his 5th save of the season.

Freedom Flags - Better than 2000 mobbed Champion Window Field Friday night, the highest attendance for any non-Saturday game all season. The 2047 Friday night came on the heels of 1927 coming out for dollar beer night the previous evening...Thursday night was also the 2005 debut for Mike Marksbury. Marksbury, who is from Norwood and attended Miami University at Hamilton before finishing at Northern Kentucky University, pitched the 9th inning of Florence's 17-7 win over Kalamazoo. With the Freedom last season, Marksbury was 1-1 with a 7.58 ERA in 24 relief appearances. He struck out 32 and walked 20 in 29 2/3 innings pitched. Marksbury was the final pick of the Colorado Rockies in the 50th round of the 2001 draft, after his freshman season at MU-Hamilton...Backup catcher Alex Derhak is no longer on the Freedom roster. He hit .260 with no home runs and 4 RBI. Elliot Joyner is now the primary backup catcher; getting a start Tuesday evening against Ohio Valley...Mike Galloway continues his march toward a league MVP title and a possible Triple Crown. He continues to lead the league in average (.426), home runs (15) and RBI (50). Galloway also leads in hits (72), Extra Base Hits (26), runs scored (46), On Base Percentage (.500) and Slugging Percentage (.762), giving him the ridiculous OPS (On Base plus Slugging) of 1.262. By comparison, Chicago Cubs first baseman Derek Lee, perhaps himself having an MVP season, has an OPS of 1.167...The Freedom have become increasingly popular in the Cincinnati press, including articles in both the Cincinnati Post and Enquirer today, even the Enquirer promising a "Weekly Florence Freedom Update." It is certainly good to see the papers north of the river noticing that a first place team exists in its market. Welcome to the fold.

Upcoming Series - Florence will take their first place show on the road to Rockford, Illinois to take on the RiverHawks in the first of a three game series this evening at 8:05. Rockford boasts the second best offense in the league (.296) and third best pitching staff (4.17). Despite their best record in the league, Florence remains only average in both categories. The Freedom are 10th in hitting (.276) and 7th in pitching (4.90). Rockford just completed a series win over the Chillicothe Paints, despite losing last night by an 8-5 margin. In the opening game, All Star Joel Posey (4-0 3.04) will start for Florence against John Richards (3-2 3.99). Mike Dennison, another Freedom All Star will start Sunday evening and Jason Bowlin will pitch the final game of the first half on Monday. Kevin Crowley and Derek Roper will start for the second place RiverHawks. All Freedom games can be heard on WRHX 107.9 FM out of Richwood, Kentucky and online at choicefmradio.com.

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Frontier League Stories from July 9, 2005


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