Cornbelters fall to Freedom

Posted on September 2, 2016

Field with fansBy Greg Halbleib

NORMAL- The Normal CornBelters, presented by Illinois Corn Farmers, gave up six runs in the fifth inning and fell to the Florence Freedom 10-3 on Friday night at the Corn Crib.

The CornBelters opened the scoring in the second inning when Jacoby Middleton was hit by a pitch to lead off, then went to second on a single by Craig Lepre, took third on a passed ball and scored on an error on a ball hit to shortstop by Justin Fletcher.

The Freedom exploded with six runs in the fifth inning, aided by two Normal errors while batting 11 men.

The Belters got one of the runs back in their fifth frame on a line drive home run just over the right field fence by Nolan Meadows to cut the score to 6-2.

Florence added a run in the sixth when Collins Cuthrell led off with a single and eventually stole home as part of a delayed double steal for a 7-2 lead.

Normal countered in the seventh with a Santiago Chirino RBI single, scoring Fletcher after he reached base on a lead-off single to slice the margin to 7-3.

The Freedom completed their scoring with two more tallies in the ninth on a sacrifice fly by Taylor Oldham and a run-scoring passed ball.

Tony Vocca (4-2) worked six innings for the win, giving up two runs (one earned) on six hits with no walks and seven strikeouts. Mike Schweiss (7-9) took the loss with four innings plus, giving up six runs (four earned) on five hits with seven walks and two strikeouts. CornBelters pitchers gave up 14 free passes by walking 10 and hitting four.

The series continues with a special start time of 1 p.m. Saturday at the Corn Crib as part of a CornBelters baseball-Illinois State Redbirds football doubleheader. Anyone with tickets to the ISU game that night are admitted to the CornBelters contest for only $5. Redbird tickets to the Saturday football opener against Valparaiso will be sold at the Corn Crib.

Right-hander Chris Carmain (7-8, 4.43 ERA) starts for the Belters against Freedom lefty Braulio Torres-Perez (3-0, 3.16). Saturday afternoon’s game can be heard live on WJBC.com beginning at 12:50. The season finale is Sunday at 4:35 p.m. at the Corn Crib.

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