Otters Sweep Freedom in Extra Innings
July 20, 2011 - Frontier League (FL)
Florence Y'alls News Release
The Otters were able to come up with a 6-5 series sweep in a 10 inning game Wednesday night after the Freedom tied the game in the ninth inning.
Phillip Britton hit a leadoff home run in the 10th inning against reliever Chad Robinson for the Otters' first sweep of the season.
The Freedom tied up a nail-biter of a game in the ninth inning at 5-5. The Freedom had runners on second and third with one out against Evansville closer Eric Massingham. Stephen Shults drove a high fly ball to deep center that was deep enough to drive in the game-tying run, but with a runner on second and two outs, Drew Rundle was thrown out by a half-step at first for the third out.
The Otters, up 5-3 heading into the eighth, sent righty set-up pitcher Ryne Purcell to the mound. Chris Curley led off by extended his hitting streak to 14 games and Stephen Shults reached on a controversial catcher's interference call. Rundle followed with a walk to load the bases with no one out. Massingham relieved Purcell and Jarred Frierson lifted a sac fly to make it a 5-4 Otters lead. Jonathan Cisneros followed by bouncing one to first, but first baseman Mike Durant made a high, errant throw to second, which in turn loaded the bases for the second time in the inning. Juan Valdes struck out for out number two and for the second straight night, a light pole outage in right field led to a delay. After a 19 minute delay, play resumed, but John Malloy lined out to third base.
The Otters started the scoring off with an unearned run against Freedom starter Anthony Bello in the second inning. Jamar Walton led off with a double and moved to third on an error by Freedom center fielder Malloy. Mike Durant hit an RBI groundout to give Evansville a 1-0 lead. Frierson tied the game in the bottom of the inning on an inside-the-park home run. He hit a sinking liner to center that was misjudged by Otters centerfielder Troy Frazier. He dove and the ball bounced in front of him and rolled to the wall in dead center as Frierson rounded the bases for the Freedom's first inside-the-park homer of the season. It was the second at The Home of the Florence Freedom in 2011.
A Freedom defensive miscue aided the Otters again in the third. Ryan Still and Joe Spiers hit back-to-back singles to put runners on the corners. Phillip Britton hit a grounder to Curley at shortstop, who threw wide of second trying to force out Spiers, who scored on the error. Still had scored on the grounder and the Otters held a 3-1 edge.
Evansville added a run in the fourth on an RBI single by Greg Fontenot. Otters' starting pitcher Scott Kelley limited the Freedom to a run on two hits in five frames. He walked three and struck out three.
Josh Cephas came in for the Otters in the sixth and gave up a solo home run to Drew Rundle, his seventh of the year that cut the Freedom deficit in half at 4-2.
Evansville southpaw reliever Patrick Crider walked the first two Freedom hitters in the seventh and Malloy sacrificed the runners to second and third. With one out, a ball thrown by Crider got away and Cisneros came home to score to make it a 4-3 game. Kevin Haas then bounced out to second with the infield in and Valdes couldn't advance home. Jonathan Smith struck out on three pitches to end the threat.
The Otters earned their two-run lead back in the eighth with three hits that knocked Bello out of the game. Corey Martin replaced Bello and struck out two. Bello lasted 7 1/3 innings, allowed nine hits, five runs (three earned), and struck out one.
The Freedom fall to 24-29 and start a three-game series against the Gateway Grizzlies on Thirsty Thursday. Game time is at 7:05 p.m. and fans can cool off with $1 beer and soda. There will be post-game live music from Funhouse.
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