Win Sunday’s regular season finale and the Florence Freedom are headed to the Frontier League playoffs – the result of turning red hot when it mattered most and salvaging a season in which the Florence squad was named Frontier League Organization of the Year.
The Freedom (49-46) rallied from two runs down to stun the Southern Illinois Miners (62-33) by a final score of 5-2 on Saturday night.
With the win the Freedom reduce their magic number to one with one game remaining in the regular season. If the Freedom win Sunday night in the regular season finale, they will make the playoffs. Regardless of the outcome for Florence Sunday against the Miners, the Freedom will also make the playoffs if either the Evansville Otters or the Rockford Aviators lose their games.
Isaac Wenrich tripled home two runs in the seventh to tie the game and scored the eventual winning run for Florence on a wild pitch.
But for long time it was a classic pitchers’ duel as Southern Illinois’ Rick Teasley (9-4) and Florence’s Zach Wendorf traded blows as they dominated the opposing offenses.
Southern Illinois finally got to Wendorf in the fifth inning. Niko Vasquez walked to start the frame. One out later Steve Marino doubled to put runners at second and third. Brian Portelli stepped to the plate and hit a deep drive to right-center that Zac Mitchell tracked down on the run for out number two. On the play Vasquez scored to make it 1-0 in favor of the Miners. Toby DeMello singled home a second run to put the Miners up 2-0.
Wendorf got a no-decision as he went five and a third innings, giving up two runs on three hits. He walked two and struck out four.
Teasley tallied seven strike outs in the game and was virtually untouchable until the seventh. Austin Newell got things started in the seventh with a single. One out later Andrew Godbold singled as well. That’s when Wenrich tripled down the right field line to score both runners and tie the game at two. That was it for Teasley. With two away, new pitcher Shane Street uncorked a wild pitch, scoring Wenrich and putting Florence up 3-2.
Florence added another run in the eighth against Ryan Brockett. Daniel Fraga and Zac Mitchell hit back-to-back singles to start the frame. That’s when Sam Eberle came up huge with a single to left to score Fraga and extend the lead to 4-2.
Florence would pad the lead again in the ninth as Josh Henderson doubled with one out. With two away Daniel Fraga doubled him home to make the score 5-2.
A combination of Pete Levitt, Seth Harvey (4-4), Ethan Gibbons and Ed Kohout shut down the Miners out of the bullpen. Kohout picked up his 19th save of the year.
Florence will send Cody Gray (4-2, 3.60 ERA) to the mound Sunday night in the regular season finale. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m. Eastern Time.
Organization, Executive of the Year
The Florence Freedom have been named the 2015 Frontier League Organization of the Year by a vote of the league’s General Managers.
Freedom General Manager Josh Anderson won the league’s Bob Wolfe Award as the Executive of the Year.
This is the second time in franchise history the Freedom have won the league’s Organization of the Year award. They also won it in 2005. The Organization of the Year award honors the franchise that demonstrated overall superior excellence during the 2015 season as determined by sales and the promotion of the team in its community.
“This is a great honor for our organization,” Freedom president Clint Brown said. “We really worked hard this year to excite our fans with a variety of creative promotions and being recognized by the rest of the league for our efforts means a lot.”
Anderson is in his fourth season as the Freedom’s General Manager. During his time as GM the Freedom have experienced dramatic growth in all aspects; both on and off the field. Examples of the organization’s growth under Anderson include a long-term deal with UC Health as the naming rights partner for the Freedom’s ballpark, a presenting sponsorship deal with Titan Mechanical Solutions, and the Freedom’s new for 2015 HD marquee on Interstate 75 which is seen by more than 155,000 cars every day. Meanwhile on the field the Freedom have a chance to make the playoffs for the third time in the last four seasons.
“This award really belongs to our front office staff. They work long hours every day to make the Freedom as successful as we are when it comes to providing Greater Cincinnati with first class entertainment at an affordable price,” Anderson said. “We are a small business so we greatly appreciate the support the community and our corporate partners have shown us over the years. The best is yet to come.”
-Staff report
