Slammers Fall to Freedom

The Joliet Slammers got an inside-the-park home run from Yasel Gutierrez but it wasn’t enough as they fell to the Florence Freedom by a final score of 4-3 Wednesday night.

Jake Renshaw pitched effectively for Joliet as he struck-out seven batters in five innings but he suffered the loss to fall to 2-1 on the year.

In the second inning Stephen Shults hit a solo home run to lead-off the inning and give the Freedom a 1-0 lead. It could have been worse though as Florence loaded the bases after that only to have Renshaw get out of the jam with no further damage.

Joliet responded in the fifth as Yasel Gutierrez hit a ball off the top of the wall that bounced away. He hustled around the bases for an inside-the-park homer to tie things at one.

But like they’ve done every time the teams have played, the Freedom immediately took the lead again. In the bottom half of the fifth Junior Arrojo was hit by a pitch. After a Joliet error put two on, the Freedom bunted the runners over. Jimmy Baker followed with a sacrifice fly and it was 2-1 Freedom on top.

They’d get some much needed insurance against reliever Kyle Kriech in the sixth. Mark Samuelson and Chris Curley started the inning with a single and a double respectively. Curley’s double actually bounced over the head of Gutierrez in right as the turf was kind to the Freedom. Two RBI grounders later and it was 4-1 Freedom.

The Slammers battled back though. With two outs and nobody on in the seventh, Nick Ochoa singled. Gutierrez followed with a single of his own and Lee Rubin drew a walk. With the bases full and two away, Bobby Leeper came up huge with a two-RBI single to make the score 4-3. That was all they got though as the Freedom changed pitchers and reliever Austin Bridgewater recorded the final out as Hector Pellot flew out to right to end the frame.

The Slammers had a huge opportunity in the eighth as they loaded the bases with two outs. Unfortunately Gutierrez would ground-out and that was that as they went down quietly in the ninth.

Chris Ingoglia picked up the win for the Freedom with 6.2 strong innings. It’s his second consecutive victory over Joliet. Corey Martin picked up his second straight save.

The Slammers will look to salvage the finale of the three-game set Thursday night as they’ll send Jason Jarvis (1-2, 3.43 ERA) to the mound.