After seeing their six-game winning streak snapped on Friday, the Florence Freedom, presented by Titan Mechanical Solutions, returned to their winning ways in a, 2-0, blanking of the Lake Erie Crushers on Saturday night at UC Health Stadium.
The Freedom (20-11) notched the only scoring play of the night in the bottom of the second, when Brandon Pugh sent a Dylan Mouzakes (2-2) fastball over the wall in left-center, his two-run shot plating Tyler Reichenborn who singled to lead-off the frame. The round-tripper was the first of the season for Pugh, who now has seven RBI as Florence took their first and only lead of the night, 2-0, over Lake Erie (16-15).
Southpaw, Mike Castellani (4-1) was spectacular on the hill again, spanning eight innings for the second straight outing, all shut-out frames.
The Crushers would scatter seven hits on the way to the shut-out defeat, striking out five times versus the lefty. Castellani has now allowed just one earned run over his last sixteen innings on the bump, and has four quality starts in six outings.
Crushers starter, Mouzakes would take the tough-luck loss, tossing a quality start himself with a final line that featured 7 innings of work and six hits that led to two earned runs with one walk an no strikeouts. Augie Gallardo would take the ball in the eighth, facing the minimum while tallying the only strikeout of a Freedom player all night.
Johnathon Tripp landed save number five on the year, facing the minimum over his lone inning of work in the top of the ninth, preserving the two-run victory.
The teams will square off one final time on Sunday evening at UC Health Stadium. Florence will trot-out their ace right-hander, Tyler Gibson (3-1, 2.47 ERA) opposite righty, Alex Romero (2-0, 2.88 ERA) of the Crushers with first pitch slated for 5:35 p.m. on Father’s Day.
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
Florence Freedom
