The Florence Freedom (12-19) fell to the Southern Illinois Miners (20-11) by a score of 9-3 Friday night at UC Health Stadium.
The Miners used two home runs and six runs in the final two innings to down the Freedom.
Trailing 3-0 heading to the bottom half of the third inning, Florence got two back. Travis Weaver led off with a single. Justin Harris was hit by a pitch and Sam Eberle walked to load the bases. After Cody Bishop struck out, Collins Cuthrell delivered for the Freedom, singling home Harris and Weaver. The score was 3-2 in the Miners’ favor after three innings.
Florence tied the game in the sixth inning. Cuthrell laced one over the left field fence for his first professional home run.
Freedom starter Chuck Weaver went five innings allowing three runs while fanning two.
Jacob Ezell and Pete Levitt were effective out of the bullpen for Florence. Ezell pitched a scoreless sixth inning while striking out one. Levitt tossed a 1-2-3 seventh inning. Seth Harvey (1-1) gave up six runs in his two innings on the bump to pick up his first loss of the season. Home runs from Jon Minucci in the eighth and Niko Vasquez in the ninth produced five of the six runs scored by the Miners over the final two frames against Harvey.
The Freedom return to action tonight against the Miners. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m.
Staff report/Photo by Toni Hanson
