After losing an early lead, the Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, recovered to win the rubber game of the series over the Schaumburg Boomers, 6-3, with the help of dominant pitching and timely hitting on Thursday night at Boomers Stadium.
Braulio Torres-Perez (1-0) overcame a three-run first inning to turn in a dominant start for the Freedom (36-21), striking out ten batters over seven innings. Jamal Wilson tossed a perfect eighth inning, and Pete Perez earned the save with a flawless ninth.
Andre Mercurio gave Florence a 2-0 lead in the first inning by knocking a double to right field, scoring Taylor Oldham and Jose Brizuela, both of whom had singled.
But the Boomers (37-19) rallied back in the bottom half, as the first five batters reached base safely. Kyle Ruchim doubled and took third on a Josh Gardiner single, and Zack Weigel was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Torres-Perez then walked David Harris to force home a run, and hit Sean Godfrey with a pitch to bring in the tying run. Cosimo Cannella grounded into a double play next, allowing the go-ahead run to score.
The Freedom, however, immediately fought back against Schaumburg starter Michael Wood (1-1). In the top of the second, Andrew Godbold beat out an infield single and advanced to second on an errant snap throw to first base from catcher James Keller. A groundout allowed Godbold to advance to third, and Daniel Fraga legged out another infield single to tie the score at 3-3. Florence took the lead in the third on a Jordan Brower RBI-double.
Brower delivered another run-scoring double in the fifth, and then scored on a base hit by Godbold. Wood was finished after five innings, surrendering six runs (five earned) on 11 hits.
Mercurio and Brower extended their hitting streaks to eight and seven games, respectively. Brizuela and Austin Wobrock also recorded two hits each in the game.
The Freedom will open a three-game series at home against the Lake Erie Crushers on Friday. Cody Gray (7-2) will start for Florence against Lake Erie right-hander Jordan Kurokawa (3-2), with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m. 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.
