Florence missed a win Sunday by mere feet, coming up short in a 6-5 loss to the Sussex County Miners in the three-game series’ finale.
The Y’alls fell behind by a run in the top of the ninth but as the bottom rolled around at Thomas More Stadium, Florence had runners on first and second with two outs when Ray Zuberer stepped to the plate and nailed a ball to deep left field. However, the hit wasn’t long enough and Sussex Co.’s left fielder Martin Figueroa caught the ball to record the game’s final out.
The Y’alls fall to 28-37 on the season, 6.5 games out of the Frontier League West Division’s third and final playoff spot. Sussex Co., from the league’s East Division, is now 37-29.
“This showed we can compete with a good baseball team,” said Brian White, Florence manager. “This is a team we hadn’t faced before (this season). We were right there with them. We were a couple feet away from winning the series.”
Sussex claimed two of three from the Y’alls over the weekend, ending Florence’s five-game winning streak on Friday by a score of 9-3. The Y’alls took Saturday’s game by a score of 5-3.
Y’alls right fielder Anthony Brocato hit a three-run homerun in the bottom of the seventh inning to help Florence pull away.
“Anthony has come up big for us lately,” White said. “Those are the kind of things we’ve been expecting from him. He wants to be up in those situations.”
Brocato had two hits in three at-bats, including a double and four runs batted in. He hit a sacrifice fly to left in the bottom of the first to score Alberti Chavez for the first run of the game.
Florence starts a three-game home series against the Schaumburg (Illinois) Boomers (34-30) on Tuesday at Thomas More Stadium. Game time is 6:32 p.m.