The Florence Freedom were swept for the first time in 2016 with a 6-5 loss to the River City Rascals Thursday night.
With the score tied at four in the sixth inning, Zach Wendorf hit Griff Gordon with a pitch, which brought home Kyle Gadaele and pushed the Rascals in front by one. Then in the eighth inning River City (3-2) extended their lead on the back of a solo shot to right center off the bat of Josh Ludy which made it a 6-4 ballgame.
Florence will hit the road for their first trip of the year Friday. The Freedom will trot out Patrick McGrath to face off against the Evansville Otters at 7:35 Eastern time (Freedom Photo)
The Freedom (1-5) did have a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth inning. Collins Cuthrell walked to lead off the frame and then advanced third on a Josh Henderson single that just rolled past the glove of a diving Willi Martin. Cuthrell made his way home and on soft bouncer to the third baseman Josh Silver. With Cuthrell crossing the plate the score sat at 6-5 before Andre Mercurio grounded out to first to end the threat.
Florence had one more chance to come back in the ninth inning, but Zach Treece was able to shut down the Freedom 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth to secure the sweep.
Florence opened up the scoring in the first inning after Daniel Fraga, Zach Mathieu, and Collins Cuthrell came around to score. The three-run lead was the first time this season that the Freedom had scored first in a game and was just the second time that Florence had scored within the first three innings.
Clayton Crum got his second start of the season, but it wasn’t much better than his first. Crum walked six batters in 3 1/3 innings leading to four runs crossing the plate. Zach Wendorf came in for his second relief appearance of the year also going 3 1/3 innings, but only giving up five hits and one run before Pete Levitt came in to strikeout Kelvin Ramos to end the seventh. Andrew Millner tossed the last two innings and gave up one run on one hit, the home run to Ludy. In total, Freedom pitching stranded 14 runners on base.
Henderson led the Freedom with three hits and two RBIs, while Fraga added two hits and two runs scored.
Florence will hit the road for their first trip of the year Friday. The Freedom will trot out Patrick McGrath to face off against the Evansville Otters tomorrow at 7:35 Eastern time.
From Freedom Communications
