Almost every big play seemed to go against the hosts up until this point.
But the Florence Y’alls brought the tying run to the plate with one out in the bottom of the ninth.
However, the Joliet (Illinois) Slammers (27-29) held on for the 5-1 win to open the series against the Y’alls (21-34) on Friday at Thomas More Stadium.
Florence designated hitter Justin Gomez walked and catcher Cooper Edwards reached first when Joliet pitcher Tyler Jay hit him with a pitch before center fielder Rodney Tennie singled to load the bases. But Jay coaxed Florence lead-off hitter Craig Massey into grounding into a double play to end the game.
“They competed for all nine innings. We always have a mantra here that we compete from first pitch to last pitch and those guys weren’t going to give up,” said Eric Minshall, Florence pitching coach. “We had our opportunities to score. We just missed that. That’s baseball. Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way.”
Tennie finished 3 for 4 at the plate for Florence and Massey went 2 for 5. Right fielder Anthony Brocato scored the lone Y’alls run in the bottom of the sixth when he blasted his team-high 16th home run of the season to right center.
“We’ve been struggling a bit here lately,” Massey said. “(On Thursday), we had an 18-inning day and got in at 6 a.m., so I don’t think anyone came out expecting us to put up 15 runs. It was just one of those days.”
Florence especially struggled against the sliders from the four Joliet pitchers. Spencer Johnston (1-1) pitched six innings to earn the win for the Slammers striking out four and walking two. Logan Schmitt pitched a scoreless seventh and Jared Liebelt a scoreless eighth for the Slammers.
Florence almost scored against the Slammers against Schmitt in that seventh inning. Gomez walked and took second when Tennie singled with one out. Massey hit a blooper that Joliet center fielder Kyle Jacobsen nearly dove and caught. Gomez decided to make a dash home but Jacobsen recovered in time to throw to shortstop Tyler Depreta-Johnson, who relayed the throw to catcher J.P. Fullerton to nail Gomez.
Joliet made no errors and Florence had two leading to one unearned Joliet run. It came in the top of the fifth to give the Slammers a 4-0 lead. Depreta-Johnson singled and made it to third after a throwing error trying to pick him off at first base. Second baseman Matt McGarry then singled him home.
Florence starter Edgar Martinez (2-4) pitched into the ninth inning striking out five and walking three. Karl Craigie came on in the top of the ninth to pitch out of a jam with runners on first and second with none out.
But Joliet took advantage of a huge opportunity in the top of the second. Third baseman Brylie Ware and Burch drew consecutive walks to open the frame before left fielder Carson Maxwell blasted a three-run home run for his team-high 10th of the year for the only runs Jolet wound up needing to win the game.
“He just got behind a bit in that inning,” Minshall said. “He lost his command for a second. They were looking for a mistake pitch. We made a mistake pitch and they made us pay.”
The series continues Saturday at 6:36 p.m. Joliet has won all four meetings this season.