Mike Castellani dazzled on short rest, and his offense did more than enough as the Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, landed a series clinching, 4-0, shutout of the Evansville Otters on Sunday afternoon at Bosse Field.
After mounting threats in each of the their first four at-bats, the Freedom (53-38) broke through on right-hander Tyler Beardsley (8-4) in the top of the fifth inning.
With two outs, Isaac Benard scorched a two-run single to right-center, helping the visitors take a, 2-0 advantage over the Otters (53-37).
Adding to the Freedom lead in the sixth, Connor Crane drilled a solo-homer to left, his eleventh round-tripper of the year was a solo shot to make the score, 3-0.
Beardsley exited after six, allowing three earned runs on nine Florence hits with two walks and three strikeouts in his first home loss of the season.
Castellani (9-2) was tremendous on short rest, out-dueling his counterpart on the way to his club leading ninth win of the year.
Plating an insurance run in the top of the eighth, Austin Wobrock delivered an RBI-single, scoring Brandon Pugh to give the veteran forty-eight runs batted in on the season and the visitors a, 4-0, lead.
Castellani toed the rubber to start the ninth, getting a quick out before Florence skipper, Dennis Pelfrey went to the bullpen, calling on closer, Karl Craigie.
Craigie allowed a single to Keith Grieshaber, but retired the next two batters en route to sealing the four-run shutout of the top team in the West Division.
Castellani totaled 8.1 innings and allowed three hits and one walk, whiffing four in his tenth quality-start of 2019.
Florence tallied 12 hits in the regular-season finale with the Otters, as Benard, Caleb Lopes, Wobrock and Crane each register two-hits.
The Freedom will take the field next on Wednesday when they play host to the East Division Joliet Slammers at UC Health Stadium.
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.