FLORENCE, KY – The Florence Freedom scored nine unanswered runs Sunday night in Florence to erase a 3-0 deficit and defeat the ThunderBolts 9-3 at the home of the Florence Freedom.
The loss was the third on a six-game road trip in which Windy City lost a multi-run lead. They concluded the trip with a 2-4 record.
The ThunderBolts started the scoring in the second inning when the team collected five hits. All the hits were singles, so the Bolts were only able to score two runs in the rally. The RBI hits came from Garrett Regan and JJ Sferra. The bases were left loaded in the inning.
Chase Porch singled home Devin Shepherd with two outs in the third to give the Bolts a 3-0 lead.
That’s when Florence’s comeback began. They scored their first two runs in the third and fourth, getting RBI hits from Jimmy Baker and Junior Arrojo.
The Freedom headed into the fifth down 3-2, but broke out offensively. After the first three men reached base, Stephen Shults singled home two to give the Freedom their first lead of the game. After a Mark Samuelson single reloaded the bases, Dustin Williams was replaced by Greg Johnson. The change didn’t make a difference for Windy City as the first batter Johnson faced, Chris Curley, singled home two more runs. The five-run inning was finalized when Samuelson stole home on a pickoff of John Malloy at first.
The Freedom added two runs in the seventh on a Cole Miles RBI single and a Juan Valdes sacrifice fly.
Williams gave up seven runs over four-plus innings to take the loss (3-2) and Andy Clark gave up all three ThunderBolts runs over six innings, earning the win (4-0).
Windy City returns home to take on the Rockford RiverHawks at Standard Bank Stadium on Monday. Monday night is Church Night at the ballpark. The pitching matchup will feature Windy City’s Matt Costello (1-1) against Rockford’s Alex Szymanski (2-0). The game can be heard on WXAV 88.3 fm and wxav.com.
