The Florence Freedom couldn’t get the bats going in a 4-0 loss to the Southern Illinois Miners (21-12) Sunday night.
Jarett Miller (1-1) tossed six shutout innings, striking out seven Freedom batters along the way to pick up the win.
Southern Illinois jumped on the board in the third inning against Coleman Stephens (2-4) as Toby DeMello hit a solo home run.
They added to their lead in the fifth. With one out Ryan DiMascio singled. Aaron Gates drew a walk and Michael Earley cleared the bases with a three-run home run to make it 4-0 in favor of Southern Illinois.
The Miners hit six home runs in the series against Florence.
Stephens went five innings, allowing four runs on five hits, walking two and striking out two in the loss. On offense, the Freedom managed only five hits and one walk as they struck out 11 times in the shutout. It’s the second time the Freedom have been shutout in 2015.
Florence has two off days before they return to action on Wednesday for a scheduled double header with the Washington Wild Things. Each game is scheduled for seven innings and Mountain Man from A&E’s Duck Dynasty will be at the ballpark. First pitch of game one is set for 5:35 p.m.
Fans who can’t make the games can listen live to all 96 Freedom games on http://mixlr.com/florencefreedom/.
Hear audio from an interview with Ken Griffey Sr. The former Cincinnati Reds outfielder made an appearance at the Freedom game on Father’s Day.
In Saturday’s game, the Freedom used a three run seventh inning to defeat the Southern Illinois Miners (20-12) 6-4 at UC Health Stadium.
Trailing 3-0 heading to the bottom half of the fifth inning, Florence got two back. Travis Weaver led off with a walk. Justin Harris singled to put runners on first and second. Daniel Fraga singled to score Weaver. The Freedom pulled off a double steal and Austin Newell drove in Harris with a sacrifice fly.
Trailing 4-2 heading to the bottom of the seventh inning, Florence took their first lead of the game. Collins Cuthrell hustled for an infield single. Gaby Juarbe, who pinch-hit for Cody Bishop, singled, and Zack Burling pinch ran to set up runners on first and second with one out. Steve Carrillo laced a double into the right-center field gap that plated Burling and Cuthrell to tie the game at four.
Carrillo moved to third on a wild pitch and came in to score the go-ahead run on a Weaver RBI single.
Freedom starter Cody Gray went four innings allowing three runs while fanning two in his professional debut.
From Freedom Communications