The Florence Freedom ended their 2016 season Sunday with a 4-2 loss to the Normal CornBelters.
The Freedom finish the year with a 46-49 record. Florence posted the second best mark in the Frontier League after June 22 (38-25) and won seven of their last eight games.
The CornBelters (45-50) found the board first on an RBI single from Elvin Rodriguez in the third, but Florence starter Jordan Kraus stranded the bases loaded to escape further damage.
In the fifth, Jordan Brower led off the inning with a single and then Travis Weaver delivered a double down the left-field line, sending Brower home from first and tying the score at one.
In the sixth, the Freedom got a pair of walks to leadoff the inning. Collins Cuthrell went to third on a flyout from Brower and crossed the plate on a balk to give the Freedom a 2-1 lead.
Normal tied the score in the sixth on an RBI single from Dylan Kelly. Jordan Kraus finished 6 2/3 innings in his final outing of the season, tossing 122 pitches and allowing two runs on six hits and three walks, while striking out five.
The CornBelters took the lead in the eighth with two runs on four walks and one hit and held on for the victory.
Weaver (double, RBI) and Brower (run) led the team with two hits each, while Cuthrell and Isaac Wenrich posted one. Patrick McGrath, Pete Levitt, and Ethan Gibbons all threw in the eighth out of the Freedom bullpen.
Rodriguez totaled a 2-for-2 day with an RBI to lead Normal, while their manager Brooks Carey earned his 200th win as manager of the CornBelters.
From Freedom Communications