The Freeport Black Sox downed the Flensburg Falcons 14-1 in 7 innings on Monday night in a Victory League C make-up game. Matt Johnson had a big hand in the Sox win, going 3-4 with a walk, driving in 5 runs and scoring twice.
The Black Sox struck in the bottom of the 1st against Falcons starter Gunner Gustafson when Trevor Sawyer led off with a single, was wild pitched to 2nd, then Ryan Liebrenz was walked. After a balk was called, Gustafson got a pop up to 1st baseman Luke Venske, but then Matt Johnson delivered an rbi single to right that scored Sawyer. The Falcons got the 2nd out of the inning on a nice throw to the plate by right fielder Seth Becker to catcher Kurt Crosby to get Liebrenz at the plate as Freeport had a 1-0 lead after 1 inning.
In the bottom of the 3rd, the Sox Trevor Sawyer led off by getting hit by a pitch, then Ryan Liebrenz reached on an error. Mason Toutges then was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. Matt Johnson the laced a 2-run single to make it 3-0, f9llowed by a 2-run double from Owen Fradette and Freeport had a 5-0 lead after 3 innings.
Freeport starter Kaden Toutges allowed just 2 hits over the first 4 innings,giving up a 2-out single to Simon Pantzke in the 1st and a 2-out single to Reece Hubbard in the 3rd. He posted 1-2-3 innings in both the 2nd and 4th innings.
Simon Pantzke, who had relieved Gunner Gustafson with no outs in the 3rd, quickly got 2 outs in the bottom of the 4th when he caught a foul pop-up and got a strikeout, but then walked Ryan Liebrenz and gave up an infield single to Mason Toutges. After a walk to Matt Johnson loaded the bases, Owen Fradette then took a walk as well, forcing in Liebrenz to make it 6-0. Nate Mettenburg then hit what appeared to be a routine groind ball that would have ended the inning, but instead, a throwing error allowed both Mason Toutges and Matt Johnson to score and increase the Black Sox lead to 8-0 after 4 innings.
In the top of the 5th, the Falcons scored their only run when Eli Epling led off by getting hit by a pitch from Kaden Toutges. After a ground out to shortstop Matt Johnson, Dan Kokett singled to put runners at the corners. Trevor Loxtercamp then reached on an error and the Falcons had the bases loaded with 1 out. Toutges got Reece Hubbard to pop up to shortstop Matt Johnson for the 2md out but then Gunner Gustafson lined an rbi single to center to score Eli Epling and make it 8-1 before Toutges got the final out of the inning on a force out at 2nd.
Freeport made it 10-1 in the bottom of the 5th when Ben Millard doubled with 1 out, and after a wild pitch, Trevor Sawyer delivered an rbi single to score Millard and make it 9-1. Sawywe eventually scored on the 2nd of 3 consecutive errors in the 5th by Flensburg to make it 10-1 after 5 innings.
In the top of the 6th, Freeport brought in Ryan Liebrenz to pitch in place of Kaden Toutges. The lefty retired the Falcons in order, including an inning-ending strikeout.
The Black Sox then added another 4 runs in the bottom of the 6th against new pitcher Eli Epling. Bryan Benson had a pinch-hit rbi single to make it 11-1, then Ryan Liebrenz cracked an rbi double to make it 12-1. After a walk to Mason Toutges, Matt Johnson capped off his big night with a 2-run single to make it 14-1 after 6 innings.
In the top of the 7th, Ryan Liebrenz quickly struck out the side to finish off the Black Sox 14-1 win in 7 innings.
Flensburg 1 4 5 – 1 7 innings
Freeport 14 11 1 – 14
WP: Kaden Toutges 5.0 IP 1 run 4 hits 4k 0bb 1hp
Ryan Liebrenz 2.0 IP 0 runs 0 hits 4k 0bb
LP: Gunner Gustafson 2.0+ IP 5 runs 4 hits 2k 2bb 2hp
Simon Pantzke 3.0 IP 5 runs 3 hits 3k 4bb
Eli Epling 1.0 IP 4 runs 4 hits 2k 2bb 1hp
Black Sox:
Trevor Sawyer 2-3 hp, rbi, 3 runs
– Bryan Benson 1-1 rbi, run
Ryan Liebrenz 1-3 2B, 2bb, rbi, 3 runs
Mason Toutges 1-3 bb, hp, 2 runs
Matt Johnson 3-4 bb, 5 rbi, 2 runs
Owen Fradette 1-3 2B, 2bb, 3 rbi
Nate Mettenburg 1-3 bb, sb, run
– Jadin Norby 0-1
Iver Papke 0-3 bb
Ben Mettenburg 0-2
– Kaden Toutges
– Nate Winter 0-1
– Andrew Kerzman 0-0 hp, run
Ben Millard 1-4 2B, run
Falcons:
Reece Hubbard 1-3
Gunner Gustafson 1-3 rbi
– Lazaro Lagunes 0-0
Simon Pantzke 1-3
– Camden Rasmussen 0-0
Kurt Crosby 0-3
Seth Becker 0-3
Eli Epling 0-2 hp, run
Luke Venske 0-2
– Nick Kokett 0-1
Dan Kokett 1-4
Trevor Loxtercamp 0-3