The Florence Freedom are making the Frontier League playoff race very interesting.
They beat the Rockford Aviators (45-42) by a score of 5-3 on Thursday night to pull within one game of Rockford in the Wild Card race with nine games remaining in the regular season with a record of 44-43.
The win also secures the season series victory over Rockford for Florence, 5-4. If the two teams finish tied for the final playoff spot, the Freedom would get the nod thanks to the season series win.
Florence fell behind early as Rockford tallied a run in the first and another run in the second against Freedom starter Coleman Stephens. Devon Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly in the first scored Michael Hur and a double off the bat of Raul Linares in the second led to Elijah Trail coming around to score to make it 2-0 in favor of the Aviators.
But Stephens retired the final 10 batters he faced in a row. Meanwhile the Freedom scored three runs in the fourth to take the lead. Austin Newell got things started against Kyle Brueggemann (6-6) with a single. Sam Eberle followed with a walk and Frazier Hall singled home Newell for Florence’s first run of the game. A Josh Henderson sacrifice fly tied the game at two and Travis Weaver’s RBI grounder made it 3-2 in favor of Florence.
Rockford rallied in the top of the sixth against Seth Harvey (3-3). Brian Bistagne doubled to start the frame and two outs later Danny Stienstra singled him home to tie the game at three.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Freedom took the lead for good. Hall walked to start the inning. Josh Henderson hit into a fielder’s choice and Isaac Wenrich doubled to put runners at second and third.
Rockford called upon Eric Cendejas, who surrendered a two-RBI single to Weaver as Florence pulled ahead by a score of 5-3.
The bullpen did the rest as Harvey worked a scoreless seventh. Ethan Gibbons did Ethan Gibbons things in the 8th (he struck out the side) and Ed Kohout picked up his 17th save of the year with a perfect ninth.
The Freedom welcome the Frontier Greys to town Friday night for the final Princess Night of 2015. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. Jeremy Gooding (6-4, 2.92 ERA) takes the hill for Florence as the playoff push continues.
Fans who can’t make the game can tune in at mixlr.com/florencefreedom/.
From Freedom Communications