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Crane’s fourth homer of the season not enough, Freedom lose game, series, to Thunderbolts


After splitting a doubleheader on Wednesday, the Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, needed a win to take the series on Thursday, but fell, 3-2, in the finale in the with the Windy City Thunderbolts at UC Health Stadium.

Connor Crane put the first run on the board for the Freedom (13-10) after a solo shot to left field in the bottom of the third inning.

The Thunderbolts (12-12) responded immediately with a sac-fly deep in left-center field by Shane Carrier, driving in Tyler Straub from third base to even the score, 1-1.

Randy Perez put the visitors in front with a solo-home run to left field in the top of the sixth inning, moving the score to, 2-1.

Scott Sebald would not come back out for the seventh, ending his night having 

secured his fourth quality start in five chances. The lefty allowed just two earned runs on four hits with one walk and six strikeouts over six strong innings.

Florence responded with a run of their own off Blake Hickman (2-1) in the bottom of the seventh. After Ryan Rinsky walked, Jackson Pritchard entered the game as a pinch-runner and promptly stole second to put the tying run in scoring position. 

Isaac Benard came through with the clutch base hit, plating Pritchard with a single to right. Benard increased his hitting streak to 5 games earlier in the affair, but with the knock increased his team-leading multi-hit total to nine games as the score stalemated at, 2-2.

Blake Hickman finished his outing with one inning of relief allowing one run, with a hit, walk, and two strikeouts.

Windy City responded with back-to-back doubles from Tyler Straub and Tyler Alamo in the top of the eighth inning off Brian McKenna (0-1), again moving the Bolts in front this time at, 3-2.

The added run was plenty of insurance for Dylan Prohoroff who tallied his sixth save of the season in the Windy City one run victory.

The Freedom will travel to Washington next for a three-game weekend series with the Wild Things at Wild Things Park beginning on Friday.  The Freedom took two of three from Washington the first time the two teams met on May 22-23.

Righty Frank Valentino (1-2) will toe the slab for the Freedom, opposite a TBD starter for the Things with first pitch slated for 7:05 p.m. on Friday.

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.


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