In the opening game of a weekend slate, the Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, let a one-run lead slip in the middle innings as the Southern Illinois Miners prevailed, 4-3, on Friday night at Rent One Park.
Making his twelfth start of the season for Florence (40-26), left-hander, Mike Castellani (6-2) ran into some early inning trouble when back-to-back knocks by Kyle Davis and Andy Cosgrove put runners on the edges with one out.
Taylor Sparks plated his first of two runs on the night next, lifting a sacrifice-fly to center as Davis crossed homeplate to push the Miners (32-31) in front, 1-0.
Two more hits would increase the margin to two, Colton Pogue earning the RBI with a double to left that scored Cosgrove as it became a, 2-0, game.
Fighting back to take their first lead, the Freedom trimmed the deficit to one in the fourth, when Austin Wobrock scored after a single, thanks to an RBI one-bagger from Ricky Ramirez Jr. With the score, 2-1, in the top of the fifth, a two-run double from Wobrock propelled the visitors in front, his second hit of the night making the score, 3-2.
The lead would prove to be short-lived, as Cletis Avery led-off the bottom of the fifth with a towering homer to right, the opposite field shot stalemating the contest at three.
In the home side of the sixth, Sparks muscled up on his first homer of the year, his solo-shot to left as Southern Illinois reclaimed a, 4-3, lead. With the one-run loss, Florence falls to 12-12 in such affairs in 2019.
Castellani tossed seven four-run innings, scattering twelve hits and adding three strikeouts in his second loss of the season. The defeat was the first for Castellani, since coming up on the short-end of a start against the River City Rascals on June 2.
Earning the win in relief, was right-hander Cody Thompson (2-2) who allowed two earned runs in two innings of work after starter, Steven Ridings exited after four complete.
The Freedom and Miners will square off in a doubleheader that will wrap their weekend series on Saturday, first pitch of game one slated for 5:05 p.m. CDT. Florence will throw a TBD starter, opposite, lefty Cole Cook of the Miners (1-0, 1.80) at Rent One Park in Marion, Ill.
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