Gateway falls on road to Florence
The Gateway Grizzlies dropped a second straight game to the Florence Freedom, this time 5-3 on Saturday evening at UC Health Stadium.
The Freedom (41-48) grabbed a 1-0 edge in the second against Gateway lefty Corey Kimes as Josh Henderson collected an RBI single.
Gateway (42-47) got the offense going in the third against Florence southpaw Braulio Torres-Perez. Eric Ferguson began the frame with a walk while Cody Livesay lined a single to put two runners on with nobody out. Seth Heck then hit a ground ball to third base and Florence infielder Collins Cuthrell bounced a throw to first base. The ball trickled down the first base line as Ferguson raced home to score with the tying run.
Josh Bunselmeyer then stepped in and hit a sac fly to left field as Livesay crosse home. The Grizzlies took a 2-1 lead.
Florence responded in the bottom half of the fourth. Kimes (4-5) gave up a one-out walk and then committed an error with a wild throw on a potential double play ball. Henderson plated a run with a groundout to tie things at 2-2. Isaac Wenrich followed it with a run-scoring single to give the Freedom a 3-2 lead.
After the Freedom tacked on runs in the fifth and sixth, the Grizzlies got one back to make it 5-3 in the seventh as Bunselmeyer hit another sac fly. Torres-Perez would give up just those three runs through six innings.
Ja’Vaun West and Will LaMarche came in from Gateway’s bullpen and pitched two scoreless innings. Kimes was lifted after completing six innings.
The Grizzlies had a golden opportunity in the eighth as they put two runners on with nobody out. Pat McGrath came in for Florence and struck out three batters in a row to end the threat.
McGrath then struck out the first hitter of the ninth. Ethan Gibbons came on to record the final two outs and picked up his 13th save of the season.
The Grizzlies and Freedom play the final game of their series on Sunday at 5:05 p.m. The game can be heard on the Grizzlies Radio Network, which airs Sunday online at GatewayGrizzlies.
com/Radio. Sam Levitt has the play-by-play call.
This story was originally published August 28, 2016 at 12:41 AM with the headline "Gateway falls on road to Florence."