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FL River City Rascals

Rascals Sweep Freedom and Remain in First Place

June 9, 2016 - Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


A quality start from Josh Wright and a five run second inning powered the Rascals to their second series sweep over the Florence Freedom, 7-1 Thursday night at CarShield Field.

For the second night in a row, the Freedom took a 1-0 lead in the opening frame but that would be the only run they would get as Wright combined with Nick Kennedy, Joe Pavlovich and Zac Treece to hold the Freedom to one run on seven hits.

The Rascals offense backed up Wright with the most runs he has been given in a start. After staying off the scoreboard despite a hit in the first inning, the Rascals bounced back and got their ninth multi-run inning of the series.

Willi Martin led off with a single, Clint Freeman doubled him to third and then they both came into score one batter later when Kyle Gaedele ripped a two RBI single to give the Rascals a 2-1 lead. Jason Merjano added one more with a RBI single, stole second and then scored on an Alexi Colon double. Colon now has 9 RBI's in his first three games with River City and he came around to score to give the Rascals a 5-1 lead thanks to a RBI from Josh Ludy.

"I knew coming in that their starter (Zach Isler) was a strike thrower and anytime I get strikes early I am trying to swing the bat and make something happen," Ludy said. "Tonight it happened to work out well."

Freedom starter Zach Isler and Wright would exchange zeros the next four innings and Wright finished going a season long six 1/3 innings, allowing just the one run on six hits and recorded five strikeouts. With Thursday night's outing, Wright has now allowed only one run to score in three of his four starts, leading the team in that category.

"It was a blast, it's always fun when I get to go out there and play with these guys. Just getting the opportunity to pitch and compete is an opportunity in itself," Wright said. "I had a lot of control with my changeup tonight and wanted to have to have them hit it around because I know I have guys behind me that play great defense."

The final batter he faced was Josh Henderson and after an eight pitch at-bat, Wright struck him out and was replaced by Nick Kennedy. Kennedy went on to throw a scoreless inning allowing one hit and one strikeout, Joe Pavlovich recorded two outs and Zac Treece threw a shutdown ninth with two strikeouts.

For the Freedom, Zac Isler got the loss and the Rascals chased him out of the game in the seventh after he allowed two hits and a walk. Ludy singled, his fourth hit of the game, Griff Gordon singled and then Clint Freeman walked to load the bases. Freedom manager Dennis Pelfrey went to his bullpen and Pete Levitt walked Gaedele to bring in the sixth run. One batter later, Merjano got a RBI on a fielders choice that capped off the seven run, 13 hit night for the Rascals.

"We have a tremendous hitting club and I give a lot of our credit to our hitters for their work that they put in, my coaching staff, and the guys that are here early every day," Brook said. "We put a lot of work into this and are starting to get a lot of good results out of guys."

In all three games in the series, the Rascals recorded 13 or more hits and are now 6-0 against the Freedom this year. Besides Ludy, Gaedele had three hits and six other players had one. Also, Jason Merjano stole two bases and stole five in the past two games.

"The sweep definitely gives us a ton of confidence. At this point everybody is used to their swings and are confident in their ability. Everything is coming together right now for our team," Merjano said.

The season continues tomorrow with the Southern Illinois Minors in town for a four game series. It will be righty Tim Koons making his 2016 Rascals home debut and first pitch for the first place Rascals is scheduled for 6:35.

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