The Florence Freedom (7-13) ran themselves into their eighth loss in their last nine contests, falling 5-3 to the Lake Erie Crushers (7-11) on Saturday night at UC Health Stadium.
Trailing 1-0, Florence tied the game in the third inning. Daniel Fraga walked and moved to third on Austin Newell’s single. Sam Eberle picked up an RBI, flying out to left to drive Fraga home.
Lake Erie moved in front for good in the fifth, scoring three runs in the top half of the frame. Florence got one back in the bottom half of the inning. Newell led off with a walk to start the rally. Newell moved to second when Eberle was hit by a pitch and got 90 feet closer to home when he tagged and moved to third on a Cody Bishop fly out. A wild pitch allowed him to score and Florence trailed 5-2 after five innings.
Florence starter David Duncan (0-1) went 4 2/3 innings, allowing five runs while striking out two.
The Freedom’s bullpen was excellent in their five and two thirds innings of work. Daniel DeSimone tossed two and one thirds innings of scoreless baseball. Matt Eshleman pitched an uneventful eighth inning and Ed Kohout fanned two batters in his lone inning of work.
Florence stranded 10 men on base and had three men gunned down on the bases in the loss. The Freedom also saw the lead-off batter reach in the first five innings of the contest but could not capitalize enough to win. They tallied one run in the ninth on a double play but fell short and lost their fifth straight series.
The Freedom return to action against the Crushers on Sunday evening.
Staff report/Photo by Toni Hanson
