Freedom to Beat the Slammers Again and Again

Stephen Shults hit a walk-off single off Ryan Quigley and the Florence Freedom (12-6) defeated the Joliet Slammers (8-10) by a final score of 5-4 Thursday night.

The Slammers took the early lead in the second inning. Erik Lis drew a lead-off base-on-balls from Freedom starter Tim Holmes. Kris Kasarjian followed with a double and one out later Kyle Maunus put the Slammers up 1-0 with a RBI single. Then with two away Ben Hewett reached on an infield single to score Kasarjian and extend the lead to 2-0.

Florence, as they always seem to do, responded. In the third inning Junior Arrojo was hit by a pitch and Cole Miles singled to left. The ball bounced off Bobby Leeper’s glove for an error and Arrojo scored to make the score 2-1. Miles went all the way to third and would score on a Juan Valdes single, tying the game at two. After another error, this time on a pick-off to first, advanced Valdes to third, Jimmy Baker hit a sacrifice fly to give the Freedom the 3-2 edge.

Drew Rundle provided the Freedom with an insurance run thanks to his solo homer in the fourth.

Jason Jarvis turned in a solid outing as he went five innings, giving up four hits, four runs, three earned, while walking one and striking-out six.

The Slammers finally rallied in the eighth. With Bobby Leeper and Hector Pellot aboard, Lis staged quite the battle at the plate. He hit two blasts that were nearly home runs but went foul. Then he blooped a triple past Cole Miles in center, scoring both runners and knotting the game at four.

 That was all the Slammers would get though and Florence became the first team to score off Ryan Quigley. In the bottom of the ninth Juan Valdes started things off with a single. He would steal second and advance to third when the ball deflected off him into the outfield. Then with one down Shults hit his walk-off hit and the Freedom moved into a tie for first place in the West Division.