Offensive Explosion Catapults Freedom

Second baseman Billy Mottram led the Florence Freedom to a 15-5 win over the Washington Wild Things Tuesday.

Mottram hit for the cycle, drove in five runs and stole a base in the 16-hit offensive explosion the Freedom put on at Consol Energy Park. Mottram’s two-run home run in the seventh inning gave him the league lead in home runs with 15.

Mottram’s cycle was the first this season in Frontier League play and the first since Traverse City’s Brad Miller did it in September of last season. Backing Mottram up was center fielder Erold Andrus who hit three doubles and drove in four. All nine Freedom starters scored against Washington pitching, including three scored by catcher Justin Pickett.

Florence starting pitcher Everett Saul pitched well enough to earn the the win. He gave up five runs in six innings of work with five strikeouts to earn his staff-leading fifth win of the season. Saul’s counterpart, Washington starting pitcher James Neitz, didn’t fare so well against Florence. In 2 1-3 innings of work Neitz surrendered 8 runs on 8 hits and struck out two.

Florence trailed 3-2 entering the third inning, and took the lead for good pushing across six runs to make it an 8-3 ball game. In the home half of the third inning, Washington came back with two runs but it wasn’t enough as Florence pitching blanked Washington for the remainder of the game.

Florence (19-17) currently sit in third place in eastern division standings, 4 1-2 games behind Kalamazoo. After taking game one of the series against Washington, Florence will send starting pitcher Andy Clark to the hill Wednesday for game two of the series.