The Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, dropped the Sunday finale of a three-game set, 5-4, to the Evansville Otters in extra innings at UC Health Stadium.
Deadlocked at 4 in the top of the tenth, Evansville (34-25) plated the eventual game winning run after a Carlos Castro single off Karl Craigie (4-2) started the frame. Jack Meggs pinch-ran for Castro, and took two bases after Craigie misfired a snap throw to first, putting the go-ahead run at third with no outs.
After a walk and a strikeout, Elijah McNamee punctuated his Otters debut with a sacrifice-fly to push the visitors ahead, 5-4.
On the heels of a one-two-three bottom of the ninth, Otters closer, Taylor Wright (2-0) faced some adversity in the Freedom (38-23) side of the tenth.
Back-to-back singles by Ricky Ramirez Jr. and Luis Pintor saw the winning runs on base as Brandon Pugh strolled to the plate. Wright induced a double-play, leaving just Ramirez Jr. at third with Florence down to their last out.
Jackson Pritchard went down on strikes and Evansville converted the one-run victory to claim the weekend series.
The Freedom scored first in the affair, Andre Mercurio plating Austin Wobrock on a soft-liner to left in the bottom of the first.
Trailing, 1-0, the Otters quickly evened the score in the second, an unearned run after a pair of errors in the frame.
J.J. Gould did the damage, skipping a chopper through the glove of Wobrock at short as Rob Calabrese crossed home-plate to knot the score. The score moved to 2-1 in the third, as the Otters scored on a Ryan Long double following Keith Grieshaber’s second single of the game.
With a single in the first, Grieshaber advanced his hitting-streak to sixteen games in the finale.
The nip and tuck contest drew even again in the bottom of the third, when Florence slugger, Connor Crane lined his ninth dinger of the season over the second row of signage in left-center field. Crane, who tallied six RBI in the three-game set, helped the Freedom take the lead again in the fourth, smoking a run-scoring single that plated Pugh as the home team took a, 3-2, edge.
The Otters would answer in the sixth, getting a Gould double that scored Calabrese before Cronin put Evansville in front with an RBI-single. It looked like the Freedom may escape the inning after a spectacular double-play turned by Caleb Lopes and Wobrock up the middle, Lopes diving to his backhand before glove-flipping to Wobrock, who bare-handed the ball in a spin as he hurled to first in time to retire McNamee.
Mike Castellani exited the game after 5.1 innings, allowing four Otters runs, three earned on ten hits with three walks and five strikeouts. The lefty rolled three double-plays in the no-decision, and was yanked one-out shy of being eligible for his seventh quality start.
Tyler Beardsley got the start for Evansville, also taking a no-decision after six, three-run innings. The right-hander was touched for eight hits but issued no walks while adding a strikeout.
Florence stalemated the score at, 4-4, in the seventh, when Isaac Benard crushed his fifth homer of the season off Otters righty reliever, Drew Beyer.
Taking to the road next, Florence opens a four-game series with the Windy City Thunderbolts in a Tuesday day-game in Crestwood, Ill.
First pitch is slated for 10:35 a.m. and will feature a pair of TBD starters. Evansville will travel to Joliet, Ill. where a three-game set with the Slammers awaits at DuPage Medical Group Field.
The Florence Freedom are members of the Independent Frontier League and play all home games at UC Health Stadium located at 7950 Freedom Way in Florence, KY. The Freedom can be found online at florencefreedom.com, or by phone at (859) 594-4487.
Florence Freedom