Two dozen princesses watch Freedom split doubleheader against Gateway Grizzlies on Sunday

By David Kubota
NKyTribune reporter

The Florence Freedom split a doubleheader against the Gateway Grizzlies on Sunday, losing the opener by a 3-2 score and winning the nightcap, 6-5.

Florence, which won two of the three games this weekend, is now in first place in the West Division.

Before the games, attendees were treated to Princess Night at UC Health Stadium. With more than two dozen princesses in attendance, dads and daughters were elated to see their favorite Disney characters. The princesses were available for photos and autographs, courtesy of A Characteristic Attitude, a service that provides costumed characters for entertainment.

In terms of baseball, despite taking the loss in game one, Freedom starting pitcher Jordan Kraus gave a strong performance, sitting down the first 10 batters. Kraus retired the Grizzlies in order in five of his seven innings, and only faced four batters in another frame.

The Freedom wasted no time starting the scoring as Andre Mercurio plated Brandon Pugh with a run-scoring single in the first inning to give Florence an early 1-0 lead. One inning later, Keivan Berges launched a mammoth home run off Will Anderson that nearly cleared the scoreboard in left field to give the Freedom a 2-0 advantage.

In the top of the fifth, Kraus surrendered a three-run homer to Johnathan Piron, his second of the year, giving the Grizzlies a 3-2 lead they would not relinquish. Kraus was handed another tough-luck loss, surrendering three earned runs on five scattered hits while striking out five in a complete-game effort.

Gateway reliever Ryan McSweeney (1-0) earned the win, hurling 1 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball, allowing no hits and walking one. Kevin Simmons came in and picked up his first save of the season, shutting the Freedom down in order to preserve the win.

The finale was a back-and-forth affair that saw Florence strike for three in the bottom of the second. Xavier Turner singled to lead off the inning, and Keivan Berges drove him in with a double that just stayed fair down the right-field line, giving Florence an early 1-0 edge.

Nick Crouse then followed with his first homer of the season, a blast over the left-field wall that extended the Freedom’s lead to 3-0.

Gateway broke through on Florence starter Christian DeLeon in the top of the fourth. With the bases loaded, Terry McClure plated one with a hard grounder to second before Piron made it a one-run game with an RBI single. A wild pitch from DeLeon would bring in the tying run.

In the bottom of the fourth, Connor Crane followed a Crouse walk and Mike Morris sacrifice bunt with an RBI single to right field that would give the Freedom another temporary lead at 4-3.

The Grizzlies jumped back in front 5-4 in the fifth, courtesy a Blake Brown two-run double to the gap in left-center off Freedom reliever Tyler Gibson. Both runs were charged to DeLeon, who took the no decision in his Freedom debut that lasted 4 1/3 innings. Gibson would sit down the next two batters, positioning himself for his first victory of the season.

In the deciding bottom of the fifth, an RBI groundout from Berges after two consecutive singles from Mercurio and Jordan Brower knotted the score at 5-all.

Nick Crouse put a bow on a stellar performance with a single to center that allowed Brower to score the go-ahead run as Florence moved in front by the eventual 6-5 final.

Johnathon Tripp slammed the door in the ninth, tallying a strikeout en route to his first save of 2018.

With the Freedom now the leaders in the West Division, they hit the road for a 10-day trip that starts with a doubleheader in Traverse City on Wednesday.

David Kubota is a Scripps Howard Foundation intern at the NKyTribune this summer. He is a student at the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media.