TRAVERSE CITY, MI – Four different Traverse City Beach Bums players drove had two RBI and Bennett Whitmore turned in seven strong innings as the Beach Bums took their second straight win over the Florence Freedom, claiming a 10-2 final.
Scoreless into the third, Traverse City started the inning off by loading up the bases on singles by Kyle Eveland and Brian Heere and a walk to Ryan Still. Jose Vargas drove in the first run of the night with a sacrifice fly to left, scoring Eveland. Chase Burch came up next and walked to reload the bases for Jeff Flagg. The TC rightfielder bounced a ball through the left side for a single, scoring Heere and Still, moving Burch to third and putting the Beach Bums up 3-0. Kyle Colligan capped the scoring in the frame with a sac fly to left, plating Burch.
The next inning, Traverse City took advantage of an extra out as Marcus Nidiffer reached on an error to open the frame. Two batters later, Heere doubled, moving Nidiffer to third. Still batted next and lifted a sacrifice fly to center to score Nidiffer, making it 5-0. Vargas was the ensuing hitter and drove home his second run of the game with a single to score Heere. Burch wasted no time in bringing home the following run as he doubled to center to plate Vargas. After Flagg was hit by a pitch, Colligan singled to center to score Burch and put the Beach Bums up 8-0.
The scoring for the evening was rounded out in the seventh as the teams traded two-run homers, Sean Gusrang providing the muscle for Traverse City while Eddie Rodriguez went deep for Florence.
Meanwhile, the runs were more than enough for Whitmore (4-2) who allowed just the two-run homer over seven strong innings of work. He walked one and struck out seven, coming up one shy of his career high, which he set one year ago today pitching for the Everett AquaSox against the Spokane Indians. Sean Gregory (4-4) took the loss for the Freedom.
