The Florence Y’alls (16-11) won their a fourth straight series taking two-of-three from the Empire State Greys (7-19) over the weekend.
The winning weekend put them in a tie for third in the Frontier League West Division standings with Evansville, 3.5 games behind Gateway for first place and a half game behind Schaumburg for second.
“I thought for the overall series, we played well,” said Chad Rhoades, Florence Manager. “We played good defense. We had some timely hitting.”
Florence opened the series with a convincing 13-1 win on Friday outhitting the Greys, 14-5. Catcher Zade Richardson led the way going 3-for-5 with a three-run home run, five runs batted in and scored twice. Right fielder Ray Zuberer went 2-for-3 with two doubles, two RBI and scored twice with center fielder Cole Brannen going 2-for-2 with a double and two runs scored.
Shortstop Jeremiah Burks and first baseman Harrison DiNicola added two hits each. DiNicola scored twice and Burks added a double. Second baseman Andres Rios had a double and two RBI and left fielder Marcos Castillo added two runs.
Edgar Martinez (3-1) pitched seven strong innings for the Y’alls, striking out nine, walking five and allowing one earned run. Michael Kirian pitched the eighth and ninth, striking out three and walking none.
Rhoades talks about going to the mound and the plate with plans all the time. But Rhoades said he does not put together lineups based off analytics like some do.
“I do not give them more information than they need,” Rhoades said. “There’s no metrics. There’s no scouting report. It’s one at-bat at a time. It’s one pitch at a time. That’s the way we work it. The guys have been good at slowing it down, not getting too antsy in the box. Each guy knows who he is. Plans are individualistic that work well for them. We saw some different lineups this series to give everyone a rest. But I thought it still flowed and we played together.”
Florence earned the series win with an 8-5 victory Saturday. Tied at three in the bottom of the seventh, DiNicola belted a three-run home run to put the Y’alls up 6-3. After center fielder Quentin Holmes belted a two-run home run in the top of the eighth for Empire State, right fielder Sam Plash and Rios socked solo home runs to make the final score.
“It was good. I’m just happy my teammates got on base,” DiNicola said. “We were having quality at-bats. I’m thankful we were passing the stick and I got to square up a ball. Luckily, it went over.”
Florence outhit Empire State, 14-13. Rios went 3-for-4 to lead the way with DiNicola, third baseman Brian Fuentes and Castillo recording two hits each. Castillo had two doubles and two RBI with Fuentes and designated hitter Craig Massey both adding doubles.
Rodney Hutchison (1-1) earned the win in relief, striking out three and walking three. Kent Klyman pitched the ninth to earn his first save this year, striking out two, walking none and allowing one hit.
“What all the guys coming out of the bullpen are trying to do is throw strikes,” Klyman said. “If we don’t have our stuff that day, we just hand it off to the next guy and trust that he’ll get the job done. That’s how we work.”
The Greys left town with one more win than last year and avoided the sweep holding off the Y’alls, 10-8 belting six home runs. Left fielder John Mead smacked two going 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored.
Plash hit a grand slam in the bottom of the third to put Florence up 4-1. But Empire State responded with five in the top of the fifth to go up 6-4 and added two in each of the next two innings. Castillo hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh to make the final score. But the Y’alls could not come back as lefty Tanner Propst retired the side in the eighth and ninth for his third save for the Greys.
It did not help that Florence starter Jake McMahill had to come out with an injury in the top of the second. Tommy Siemer (0-1) and Jestin Jones pitched seven innings of relief combined before Sean Hughes pitched a scoreless ninth.
“We had to ask a lot out of the bullpen, had to stretch guys through,” Rhoades said. “You kind of see the recourse of that when guys get tired, but they still have to cover innings. They hit some multi-run home runs that hurt us. But the guys did a good job staying locked in. They kept fighting.”
Empire State outhit Florence, 13-9. Plash, Massey and Castillo had two hits each to lead the Y’alls. Plash scored two runs.
Florence travels east to face the East Division leading Sussex County Miners (17-9) for three games starting Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. They’ll follow that up with a three-game set at Tri-City before a nine-game homestand starting on June 20 with Gateway.