Schaumburg Boomers complete sweep

The Schaumburg Boomers completed a three-game sweep of the Florence Freedom with a 5-4 victory at Boomers Stadium.

After both teams struggled at the plate in Saturday’s 13-inning 1-0 Boomers walk-off victory, both offenses came out of the gates fast Sunday. The first batter of the game for the Freedom scored the first run of the contest to give the visitors an early lead on an RBI-groundout by the Freedom’s Eddie Rodriguez.

The Boomers answered in the home half of the second with 3 runs and never looked back. Back-to-back Boomers singles from right fielder Nate Baumann and first baseman Nick Kuroczko (2-for-4 with an RBI) got things started, with Baumann crossing the plate on an error by Florence second baseman Tucker Nathans.

A single off the bat of catcher Ty Nelson drove in fellow catcher Mike Valadez, who served as the designated hitter, to give the Boomers a 2-1 lead. After shortstop Andrew Cohn was hit by a pitch, center fielder Chad Mozingo doubled to drive in Nelson and make it a 3-1.

The Freedom answered with a run in the top of the third with Cole Miles scoring after a Chris Curley double to cut the lead to 3-2 in favor of the home team, but Schaumburg answered with a run of their own in the third. Frank Pfister singled with one away and scored on a Kuroczko double to extend the advantage back to 2 runs.

Sure enough the Freedom came back with another run in the fourth on a solo home run by left fielder David Harris, but again the Boomers showed they were up to the task when Mozingo belted his first home run as a Boomer to almost the exact spot in left-center as Harris’ homer. Mozingo was 2-4 with 2 RBI and a run scored.

Right-hander Robbie Penny (1-0, 2.77) collected his first win as a Boomer with 6 strong innings of work. He allowed just 5 hits, 3 earned runs and added 6 strikeouts for Schaumburg.

Jason Braun picked up his first save of the season with 2 scoreless innings and 3 strikeouts. Andres Caceres (1-1, 5.25) took the loss for Florence.