08/22/2007

Freedom rings in the 10th inning

Florence plates nine runs in the first extra frame

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Record-Eagle/Douglas Tesner
Florence Freedom catcher Nick Salotti tags out Traverse City Beach Bums’ Justin Holmes.

TRAVERSE CITY — Jeff Brown forced extra innings with a dramatic two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.

The drama was yet to begin.

The Florence Freedom scored nine times in the top of the 10th inning to wipe out Brown's blast and the Traverse City Beach Bums with a 14-5 victory on Tuesday.

Brown's home run — his first in Traverse City this season — was his fifth of the season.

Those good feeling for Traverse City (38-46) were quickly dashed as Florence kept scoring and scoring in the 10th inning to snap a three-game winning streak by TC.

The Beach Bum struck first in the contest, scoring twice in the opening inning on a two-out, two-run hit by Brad Vericker.

The Freedom tied the contest in the fifth as Nate Yoho hit a two-run double off Beach Bums starter Phil Tognetti.

Florence took a 5-2 lead with three runs in the top of the seventh. Yoho drove in the first two runs with a triple and Nick Salotti followed it up with a run-scoring single.

Traverse City cut the lead to 5-3 in the bottom half of the seventh on an RBI single by Sam Orr.