The Florence Freedom got a masterful performance from Jeremy Gooding on their way to a 5-2 victory over the Traverse City Beach Bums Sunday night.
With the win, the Freedom win their fifth straight road series and match their total road wins (13) from all of last season.
Gooding (4-2) struck out 13 batters over eight and a third innings on the mound. His 13 K’s are a career high and the most by an individual Freedom pitcher in one game in at least the last two seasons.
At one point, Gooding retired 20 consecutive hitters and had a one-hitter going entering the ninth inning.
Florence got on the board in the second inning as Andrew Godbold reached on a dropped third strike. Sam Eberle singled him to third and Kyle Carter delivered a sacrifice fly to put Florence up 1-0. Eberle stole second and scored on a Gaby Juarbe single to left.
In the third inning, Daniel Fraga tripled with one away. He scored on a RBI grounder from Zac Mitchell. Then in the fourth, Eberle doubled with one out. A Carter single moved him to third and Eberle scored on a Juarbe ground-out to extend the lead to 4-0.
Eberle got things rolling again in the seventh as he doubled to start the frame. Two outs later a Jose Vargas throwing error allowed Eberle to score and the Freedom took a 5-0 lead.
The night belonged to Gooding though as he struck out the side in the second inning and the sixth as well. After a two-out Yazy Arbelo single in the second, he retired 20 straight batters until Sam Bumpers singled with one out in the ninth.
Jeff DeBlieux followed with a double and Alex Tomasovich singled home the first run of the game for the Beach Bums.
At that point Ed Kohout entered the game and got the final two outs (with a run scoring on a Vargas sacrifice fly) to end the game. Kohout earned his 10th save of the season.
The Freedom have two off days before they take on the Rockford Aviators Wednesday night at UC Health Stadium. First pitch is set for 6:35 p.m. as Cody Gray (1-0, 3.21 ERA) takes the hill.
It’s Local Heroes Night presented by Dr. Charles Kenner of Kenner Dentistry. All our local police officers, firefighters and EMT’s can get a free ticket at the Box Office in honor of the work they do in our community.
Fans who can’t make the game can tune in at http://mixlr.com/florencefreedom.
In Saturday’s action, the Freedom fell victim to the big inning as Traverse City scored three times in the eighth to win by a final score of 4-1.
The loss snapped the Freedom’s five-game winning streak.
Florence fell behind early as Yazy Arbelo smashed a solo home run off Chuck Weaver (3-2) in the second inning.
Weaver was outstanding after that but Florence’s offense couldn’t get anything going against Traverse City starter Luis DeJesus, who went seven innings, allowing only one run on three hits, walking one and striking out eight.
Florence’s lone run came in the seventh as Collins Cuthrell went deep for his team-leading seventh homer of the year to tie the game at one.
But it all came undone in the eighth for the Freedom. With one out and nobody on, Jeff DeBlieux worked an 11-pitch walk.
It was the only walk of the game allowed by Weaver but it was a big one. DeBlieux promptly stole second and Alex Tomasovich singled him home to put Traverse City up 2-1. Jose Vargas followed with a single of his own to put runners at the corners with one out.
That was it for Weaver as Seth Harvey came in for Florence. Harvey struck out Brandon Jacobs but allowed back-to-back RBI singles to Reggie Lawson and Arbelo to put Traverse City up 4-1. All three runs in the inning were charged to Weaver as he ended up with a line of seven and a third innings, eight hits, four runs, all of them earned, one walk and six strike outs.
Weaver’s only two losses this year have come against the Beach Bums.
From Freedom Communications