Florence’s Cody Bishop went hitless in the series against the Crushers. But his sharp eye won the game for the Freedom on Sunday.
With the bases loaded and the game tied at four in the bottom of the 10th, Bishop drew a walk and the Florence Freedom prevailed by a final score of 5-4 over the Lake Erie Crushers.
Daniel Fraga was hit by a pitch to start the threat in the 10th and he stole second to put himself in scoring position. Sam Eberle was intentionally walked to put runners on first and second. Ozzy Gonzalez followed with another walk to load the bases with two outs and Bishop coming up. He took a 3-1 pitch low for the game winning walk.
Florence took an early lead in the bottom half of the first. Fraga led off with a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. Eberle followed with a walk of his own to put runners on first and second. Eberle and Fraga moved to second and third on a passed ball. Gonzalez smashed a single into center field bringing home Eberle and Fraga. The Freedom held a 2-0 lead after one frame.
Florence doubled their advantage in the second. Steve Carrillo started the threat with a single and moved to second on an error by the Crushers. After consecutive outs, Daniel Fraga singled and stole second to put runners on second and third. Sam Eberle singled home Fraga and Carrillo to put Florence up 4-0.
Florence signed Jason Postill Sunday morning and he took the bump for the Freedom to start Sunday’s contest. The Orlando, Florida, native tossed four innings and allowed three runs on four hits while fanning five. Florence led 4-3 after four innings.
The Florence bullpen tossed six innings and allowed only a single run in the game. Pete Levitt surrendered one run in his inning and two-thirds on the hill. Seth Harvey fired one and a third innings while striking out two. Ethan Gibbons pitched two scoreless frames while fanning two batters. Ed Kohout (1-0) picked up his first win of the season, dealing a scoreless 10th inning.
The Freedom have an off day on Monday before returning to action Tuesday against the River City Rascals in O’Fallon, Missouri. First pitch is set for 7:35 p.m. and all the action can be heard on http://mixlr.com/florencefreedom/.
In Saturday’s game, the Freedom ran themselves into their eighth loss in their last nine contests, falling 5-3 to the Lake Erie Crushers at UC Health Stadium.
Trailing 1-0, Florence tied the game in the third inning. Daniel Fraga walked and moved to third on Austin Newell’s single. Sam Eberle picked up an RBI, flying out to left to drive Fraga home.
Lake Erie moved in front for good in the fifth, scoring three runs in the top half of the frame. Florence got one back in the bottom half of the inning. Newell led off with a walk to start the rally. Newell moved to second when Eberle was hit by a pitch and got 90 feet closer to home when he tagged and moved to third on a Cody Bishop fly out. A wild pitch allowed him to score and Florence trailed 5-2 after five innings.
Florence starter David Duncan (0-1) went four and two thirds innings, allowing five runs while striking out two.
The Freedom’s bullpen was excellent in their five and two thirds innings of work. Daniel DeSimone tossed two and one thirds innings of scoreless baseball. Matt Eshleman pitched an uneventful eighth inning and Ed Kohout fanned two batters in his lone inning of work.
Florence stranded 10 men on base, and had three men gunned down on the bases in the loss. The Freedom also saw the lead-off batter reach in the first five innings of the contest but could not capitalize enough to win. They tallied one run in the ninth on a double play but fell short and lost their fifth straight series.
From Freedom Communications