TRAVERSE CITY, MI – The Traverse City Beach Bums hit three solo homers and got some clutch pitching late to send Traverse City to a 5-4 win over the Florence Freedom.
Trailing 3-2 heading into the bottom of the fifth, Sean Gusrang lined the first pitch of the inning over the leftfield wall for his seventh homer of the year to tie the game at 3-3. The next hitter was Travis Higgs who repeated the effort, driving his first homer of the year to left-center for a 4-3 TC edge. Kyle Eveland stepped in next and roped a ball to the base of the fence in left for a double. Brian Heere capped the scoring in the frame when he singled to score Eveland.
Things got a bit dicey in the seventh when the Freedom scored and run and had two on with two out, but Matt Miller was able to close the door. In the eighth, it was another tightrope act as Miller got the first two batters of the inning before a hit batsman and a single put runners on the corners with two out before John Malloy struck out to end the frame.
Florence jumped ahead on a Peter Fatse RBI single to score John in the first, but the Beach Bums tied the game on a Chase Burch homer in the second. Traverse City wasn’t done in the inning, however as following the homer by Burch, Jeff Flagg doubled and Kyle Colligan singled to put runners on the corners. After a caught stealing and a flyout, Flagg remained on third with two down when Florence’ starter Alec Lewis balked to force home Flagg for a 2-1 Beach Bums lead.
On a night where the ball was flying out of Wuerfel Park seemingly at will, drew Rundle homered in the fourth for the Freedom to tie the game at 2-2. Florence would tally another run in the fifth to take a 3-2 lead.
On the mound, Reid Kelly (7-2) earned the win with six innings of three run ball. Scott Mueller authored a perfect ninth for his 13th save, tying Evansville’s Eric Massingham for the league lead. Alec Lewis (2-6) took the loss for Florence.
