July 20, 2012 - Frontier League (FL) Florence Freedom O'Fallon,MO-The Florence Freedom took an early 2-0 lead against the River City Rascals Thursday night, but the Rascals offense proved to be too powerful, coming away with a 10-7 win over the Freedom. The Rascals improved to 29-26 on the season, while the Freedom fell to 28-27 with their fifth straight loss.

John Malloy started the game off well for Florence, launching a game opening solo homer over the 38 foot wall in right field to put the Freedom ahead 1-0. It was Malloy's 6th homerun of the season. In the same inning, Junior Arrojo doubled, which was one of his three hits on the night. Two batters later, Eddie Rodriguez hit an RBI double scoring Arrojo which gave the Freedom a 2-0 lead. Rodriguez finished the game 3-4 with 2 RBI.

Maxx Catapano who was fresh off the 7 day DL, couldn't maintain the early lead that his offense provided him. In the 1st inning, a wild pitch allowed one run to score, and a throwing error by catcher Jim Jacquot allowed another one to come home to tie the game at 2-2. A two run double by Matt Serna later in the inning extended the Rascal lead to 4-2.

The Rascals built an 8-2 lead against Catapano(4-2), who only went 3.2 innings giving up 10 hits, on 8 earned runs. The Freedom battled back though in the 6th inning. After Rodriguez and Drew Rundle singled, Jacquot walked to load the bases. David Harris then hit one deep into right center field as right fielder Jeremy Synan dropped the ball on the run which allowed Rodriguez and Rundle to score to cut the deficit to 8-4. The Freedom then made it closer in the 7th on a SAC Fly by Peter Fatse, and an RBI single by Rodriguez. The Rascals however, scored twice in the their 7th, as Chris Andreas scored on a wild pitch from Brandon Mathes, and Curran Redal provided an RBI single to push the lead to 10-6.

In the 9th, the Freedom made it interesting against Brandon Cunniff. Arrojo lined a double down the left field line which he later scored on a Rundle RBI single. With two runners on, and with only one out, Cunniff then buckled down to strikeout Jacquot, and get Harris to bounce out into a game ending fielder's choice.

The Freedom and Rascals will continue their series Friday night as Andres Caceres will start for Florence, while River City sends Keli'I Zablan to the mound. Friday's game can be heard with Steve Jarnicki starting at 7:50 pm on Real Talk 1160 and realtalk1160.com.

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