The Florence Freedom (48-45) defeated the Windy City ThunderBolts (40-53) 3-1 Thursday night behind yet another outstanding performance by pitcher Jeremy Gooding.
With the win, the Freedom reduce their magic number to three to make the playoffs. They are currently tied with the Rockford Aviators and the Evansville Otters for the final spot in the post-season with three regular season games remaining. If the season were to end in a three-way tie, Evansville and Florence would make the playoffs. Florence holds the tiebreaker over Rockford but does not hold it over Evansville.
Gooding (8-4) went seven innings, allowing only one run on four hits. He walked two and struck out three to pick up his third consecutive win on the mound. Ethan Gibbons did Ethan Gibbons things in the eighth as he tossed a scoreless frame and Ed Kohout picked up his 18th save of the year with a perfect ninth.
Florence got on the board in the second against Windy City starter Jake Fisher (5-7) as Andrew Godbold got things started with a double. Isaac Wenrich bunted him to third. Travis Weaver followed with a grounder to short. Windy City had the infield in and threw Weaver out at first. Godbold scored anyways as he beat the throw home from first baseball Austin Gallagher to make it 1-0 in favor of Florence.
Steve Carrillo kept the inning going with a single to right. Daniel Fraga followed with a single of his own and Zac Mitchell singled home Carrillo to extend the lead to 2-0.
Coco Johnson homered in the third to cut the Freedom advantage to 2-1. But Florence responded right away in the bottom of the third. Austin Newell doubled to start the frame. Two outs later Andrew Godbold singled him home as Florence increased their lead to 3-1.
Neither team scored in the game after the third inning as Florence clinched at least a .500 record and won their sixth consecutive series.
The Freedom head to Marion, IL on Friday for their final regular season series of the year as they take on the league-leading Southern Illinois Miners. First pitch Friday night is set for 8:05 p.m. eastern time as Patrick McGrath (2-2, 2.62 ERA) takes the hill.
Fans can tune in online at http://mixlr.com/florencefreedom/.
From Freedom Communications