A late home run by Taylor Oldham proved to be the difference Friday night as the Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, defeated the Gateway Grizzlies, 3-2, in ten innings at GCS Ballpark.
With two outs and the score tied at 2-2 in the top of the tenth inning, Oldham crushed a pitch from Grizzlies (10-28) right-hander Kaleb Earls (0-3) over the left field wall, giving the Freedom (25-12) their first lead of the night.
Enrique Zamora entered to pitch the bottom half and retired the first batter before walking two and allowing a single to Cody Livesay, loading the bases. But Zamora bore down, striking out Matt Hearn and Blake Brown to give Florence its first extra-inning win of the season.
Making his Frontier League debut, Zach Kirby started for the Freedom and pitched seven innings, holding Gateway to just two runs on six hits and striking out four. Laetten Galbraith (1-0) bridged the gap to Zamora with two perfect innings in relief.
Gateway had struck first in the game, as Livesay led off the bottom of the first inning with a walk. After stealing second base and advancing to third on a Hearn sacrifice bunt, Livesay scored as Blake Brown grounded out to shortstop.
Florence tied the score in the top of the third, as Oldham drew a two-out walk and scored when Jose Brizuela drove a double to the wall in center field, but Brown put the Grizzlies back in the lead with a solo homer to right-center off Kirby in the home half.
After both teams failed to score in the middle innings, Austin Wobrock led off the seventh with an infield single and advanced to second when Hearn booted the ball down the right field line on the play. Two batters later, Daniel Fraga plated Wobrock from second with a single to right field, tying the score. Fraga went 2-for-5 in the game to extend his hitting streak to 11 games, the longest Freedom hitting streak of the season. Additionally, Wobrock finished 2-for-4, hitting safely in nine straight games.
The series continues Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m. at GCS Ballpark. Tony Vocca (4-2) will start for the Freedom against Gateway right-hander Will Landsheft (2-3).
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.
