By Greg Halbleib
FLORENCE, Ky. – The Normal CornBelters, presented by Illinois Corn Farmers, nearly erased a nine-run deficit but lost their fourth straight game while the Florence Freedom earned their fourth straight win, 13-8 on Saturday night at UC Health Stadium.
The Freedom broke on top first again with a second-inning rally as Collins Cuthrell led off with a double followed by a single from Isaac Wenrich, and a fielder’s choice ground out by Josh Henderson scored Cuthrell for the game’s first run. Florence scored three times in the third inning aided by two errors. A fielder’s choice by Andrew Godbold, a sacrifice fly by Cuthrell and a misplayed fly ball in left from Wenrich led to the tallies to put the hosts ahead 4-0. The fourth CornBelters error of the day, a misplayed ball to right field, gave the Freedom a 5-0 lead on their third unearned run as Daniel Fraga scored from first base.
The Belters finally entered the scoring column in the sixth inning on three straight singles, with R.J. Perucki driving in Nolan Meadows to cut the deficit to 5-1. Florence increased the lead to 10-1 in the sixth inning with five runs on one hit and four walks, scoring on a bases loaded ground out by Godbold and a grand slam by Wenrich.The CornBelters exploded in the seventh inning to crawl back into the contest, scoring seven times while sending 12 hitters to the plate and taking advantage of five walks and one error while adding four hits. Runs were driven in by Elijah Trail, Meadows, Dylan Kelly and Santiago Chirino with a two-run single by Perucki, all to cut the margin to 10-8.
The Freedom wasted no time answering in their seventh inning by scoring three runs on only two hits with three walks. RBIs came from Austin Newell single, a Richard Seigel walk and a sacrifice fly by Collins Cuthrell to increase the advantage to 13-8.Patrick McGrath (2-3) earned the win with six and one-third innings of work, giving up four earned runs on seven hits with five walks and three strikeouts. Mike Schweiss (2-3) took the loss, lasting six innings with five runs (two earned) with six hits, four walks and three strikeouts.The series concludes Sunday in northern Kentucky with a pitching match-up of Belters lefty Max Homick (3-3, 2.58 ERA) against Freedom right-hander Cody Gray (1-0, 3.60). First pitch is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. Central with the WJBC.com broadcast at 4:50. The Belters take Monday off before another brief three-game homestand on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday against the Traverse City Beach Bums at the Corn Crib. Stay social with the CornBelters at http://twitter.com/normal_baseball, http://www.facebook.com/CornBelters and http://www.youtube.com/normalcornbelters
