The Florence Y’alls (3-3) may not have pulled off the sweep against the Joliet Slammers (2-4) to end the six-game home stand to open the season, but the Y’alls did earn their first series win of the year in two tries.
Improved pitching led to two wins in the three-game series.
“I think what the guys understood this series is be yourself. We’re not trying to game plan against the other team. It’s show your strengths. I think we got caught in that first series abandoning our strength and trying to pitch to weaknesses in the middle of at-bats. In this series, I think we pitched to our strengths and stuck to our guns. I think the pitching was really good this series,” said Chad Rhoades, Florence Manager.
Florence opened the series with a 6-4 victory behind the solid performance of rookie pitcher Nathan Florence in his debut. He struck out nine, walked one and allowed no hits to earn the win.
“Obviously, there were some first-day jitters,” Florence said. “But I just made sure to treat it like any other start that I made. I was a starter my whole collegiate career (at University of Hartford and Rutgers University) so I kind of go about my business the same way throughout the week and day of. I just stuck to what’s comfortable with me and pitched to my strengths. I feel like it worked out pretty well.”
Joe Dougherty pitched the sixth striking out three, walking one and allowing two earned runs. Kent Klyman then pitched two scoreless innings before Cameron Pferrer pitched the ninth to earn his first save of the season. They held the Slammers to five hits.
Florence batted .321 (9 for 28) overall. Designated hitter Brennen Price went 3 for 3 with three RBI and scored once. Shortstop Jeremiah Burks went 2 for 3 with a double and RBI with first baseman Craig Massey going 2 for 4 with an RBI and scored once.
Rhoades promised a “Nascar in Baseball” approach to this season and it showed in this game. The Y’alls had four stolen bases. Center fielder Cole Brannen stole two bases with Price and Ray Zuberer stealing one each.
The Y’alls continued the momentum Wednesday with a 5-2 win. Price hit a walk-off three-run blast with two out scoring Brannen and left fielder Marcos Castillo ahead of him in the bottom of the 10th for the win.
Michael Kirian (1-0) pitched the 10th inning to record the win for the Y’alls walking one. Edgar Martinez started and pitched six innings striking out four and walking two. Sean Hughes pitched the seventh before Brandon Mason pitched the eighth and ninth. Joliet batted .250 (8 for 32) overall.
Florence batted .212 (7 for 33) overall. Price led the way going 3 for 5 with four RBI and scored once. Burks added a double.
The Slammers prevented the sweep with a 3-1 win Thursday. The Y’alls could not consistently hit Joliet left-handed starter Cole Cook (1-0). In seven innings, Cook struck out 10 and walked just one.
Joliet’s two relievers in David Harrison and Tanner Kiest pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings, striking out one each. Kiest hit Burks with a pitch to start the ninth, but got second baseman Andres Rios to ground into a double play before striking out third baseman Brian Fuentes looking to end the game.
Both teams had 32 at-bats. Joliet had seven hits for a .219 batting average and Florence had six for a .188 average.
The Y’alls used four pitchers in the game making no errors behind them. Mike Kickham pitched the first three innings striking out four and walking one before Carter Poiry (0-1) pitched the next three striking out two and walking three. Pferrer pitched scoreless seventh and eighth innings striking out four and Joe Dougherty pitched a scoreless ninth striking out two to keep the Y’alls in the game.
Castillo was the lone Y’all to have consistent success against Cook going 2 for 3 with a double and scoring the lone Florence run in the bottom of the fifth. He doubled to lead off the game before left fielder Cole Brannen doubled him home with one out.
“(Cook) was one of those starting pitchers that did his job,” Castillo said. “The one thing that he did really well was locate in the corners of the strike zone. He didn’t throw it right down the middle. A lot of hitters’ success is pitchers’ mistakes. He never really threw us anything good to hit. So next time going in, our game plan is probably to be a little more patient. It’s easier said than done obviously. But now that we’ve seen him, his curve ball had really tight spin. It broke late. But now we’ve seen it. That’s baseball. The first time you may or may not do well.”
The Slammers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when designated hitter Matt Feinstein and first baseman Matthew Warketin recorded consecutive doubles with one out. The with one out in the top of the fourth, third baseman William Salas walked and second baseman Matt McGarry doubled him to third. With two out, shortstop Tyler Depreta-Johnson doubled them home to put the Slammers up 3-1.
Florence opens its first road series at the Lake Erie Crushers (4-2) starting Friday at 7:05 p.m.