Freedom Beat Windy City 6-2 to Clinch Playoff Spot

September 4, 2013 - Frontier League (FL) Florence Freedom The Florence Freedom defeated the Windy City Thunderbolts 6-2 Wednesday night at University of Cincinnati Medical Center Stadium to clinch a wild card berth to the Frontier League playoffs, the Freedom's second consecutive playoff appearance.

Windy City threatened right off the bat against Freedom starter Michael Oros, as Evan Button reached on an infield single and Mike Torres reached on an error by Freedom second baseman Aljay Davis. After Button was thrown out on a stolen base attempt, Ryan Soares singled to put runners on the corners with one out. Oros managed to strike out the next two batters to end the threat and keep the game scoreless after half an inning.

The Freedom dented the scoreboard first in the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Cole Miles and an RBI single by Byron Wiley that gave the Freedom at 2-0 lead.

Florence pushed the lead to 3-0 in the fourth on a Pablo Bermudez RBI single off of Windy City starter Dan Cropper (L, 8-5).

The Thunderbolts cut the lead to 3-1 in the top of the fifth on an RBI groundout by Button.

Florence responded in the bottom of the fifth by getting their run back. After Junior Arrojo doubled to lead off the inning, Miles sacrificed him to second and Byron Wiley drove him in to extend the Freedom lead to 4-1.

Windy City was not done scoring just yet however as Chad Cregar singled in a run in the eighth off of Jordan Conley, who came on in relief of Oros (W, 7-5), that made it a 4-2 game. Jorge Marban came on with two outs in the inning to strand the tying runs at second and third by striking out Andrew Brauer.

The Freedom got two important insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth as Pablo Bermudez lined a home run down the right field line that was just fair and pushed the Freedom lead to 6-2.

Marban (S, 27) walked a batter in the ninth but struck out Button swinging to end the game and send the Freedom on to the playoffs.

The Freedom have one game remaining in the regular season, tomorrow night's season wrap up in the rubber match between the Freedom and Thunderbolts. First pitch at UCMC Stadium is at 6:35, with tickets available at the UCMC Stadium ticket office or by phone at (859) 594-HITS. The game can also be heard on 1320-AM WCVG and gospel1320.com. Steve Jarnicki will have all the play-by-play action beginning with the pregame show at 6:20.

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Freedom Beat Windy City 6-2 to Clinch Playoff Spot