Friday night at Southern Illinois, the Florence Freedom exceeded the previous club record for the longest game in franchise history for the second time this season, and like their previous record-setter, this one also ended with a Freedom loss.

After five hours and 44 minutes of baseball, not many of the 5,443 who were on hand at game’s beginning at Rent One Park in Marion, Ill., were still there to see Southern Illinois shortstop Mike Scanzano double off right-hander Mark Janszen (2-4) with one out in the bottom of the 18th inning to bring home Mike Victor all the way from first base and lift the host Miners (24-23) to a 4-3 victory over the Freedom.

A game filled with twists and turns didn’t always seem to be destined for such a long, drawn-out conclusion.

Southern Illinois right-hander Nick Tisone no-hit the Florence offense for 6 1/3 innings before giving up a run-scoring single to Freedom third baseman Tim Grogan in the seventh that broke up the no-hit bid as well as a scoreless deadlock and put the visitors on top 1-0. Grogan’s hit scored Ryan Basham, who led the inning off with a walk and was bunted to second by cleanup batter Beau Blacken.

Meanwhile, Freedom left-hander Alain Quijano was matching bulls-eyes with Tisone. The rookie from Des Moines, Iowa kept the Miners off the board for the first eight innings despite having base runners on in seven of the eight frames.

The Freedom gave Quijano what looked to be a pair of insurance runs in the top of the ninth against right-handed reliever Griffin Bailey. With one out Blacken ripped a line drive into left-center field that eluded the diving effort of Miners center fielder Kevin Koski and went all the way to the wall for Blacken’s second triple of the season and only the third of his four-season professional career. After Grogan was hit by a pitch, Freedom second baseman Joe Holland lined a base hit to center to score Blacken and give his team a 2-0 advantage. Josh Lex was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. DH Mike Wadowski, who entered the game as a pinch-runner for starter Nick Salotti in the eighth, worked the count full against Bailey before sending a bouncer to third that resulted in a force-out of Grogan at the plate for the second out. Freedom rookie shortstop Tony Perez then drew a controversial bases-loaded walk to force in the second run of the inning and extend the lead to 3-0. A couple of close pitches drew an argument from Southern Illinois third baseman Chris Hall, who was subsequently ejected from the game by home plate umpire Joe Orf. Miners manager Mike Pinto was also tossed from the game after he continued the argument with Orf. When the dust had settled, Florence enjoyed a 3-0 advantage going into the bottom of the ninth.

Quijano’s attempt at a second complete game of the season ended quickly as rain started to fall quite hard in the home half of the ninth. Miners first baseman Scott Simon began the inning with a double and moved to third on a wild pitch. Quijano then issued a walk to Victor and that was the end of the night for the rookie lefty. Right-hander Cody Castle was brought on to face Scanzano, and the all-star shortstop responded with an infield hit in the hole at shortstop – one of six hits on the night for Scanzano – and that brought home Simon with the Miners’ first run of the night. After Kevin Koski bunted the runners into scoring position, right-hander Dave Watkins was brought on to pitch to Southern Illinois leadoff hitter Ralph Santana, who entered the night hitting .352. Already with three hits on the night, Santana proceeded to beat out an infield chopper to third that scored the second run of the inning. After Eric Suttle was intentionally walked to load the bases, Miners catcher Rob Wirth’s ground-out scored Scanzano with the tying run. Watkins then issued another intentional pass to Willie Keene to re-load the bases before striking out pinch-hitter Seth Beason swinging to send the game into extra innings.

Florence’s best scoring chance in extra innings came in the 17th inning when Greg Stone led off with a walk and was sacrificed to second by Reggie Watson. With first base open, Basham was intentionally walked. Blacken, who leads the Freedom in RBIs, then stroked a line drive hit to right. Stone tried to score from second but was nailed on a close play at the plate on a perfect throw from Suttle in right field.

The Florence bullpen provided seven scoreless innings before Scanzano’s game-deciding hit in the 18th made a winner of reliever Charlie Hahn (3-1). Janszen, a hard-luck rookie from Cincinnati Elder and Xavier University, allowed just two hits in 3 1/3 innings but walked five batters, including Victor, who turned out to be the winning run. Janszen was also the losing pitcher in the previous record-holder for the longest game in franchise history when the Freedom dropped a 6-3 decision in 15 innings to visiting Windy City on June 15 at Champion Window Field.

Stone entered Friday’s game needing only two hits to match former Freedom outfielder Mike Galloway’s franchise record of 170 career hits. The Claremore, Okla., native got no closer to the record, however, as he was held hitless in seven official at-bats. Watson, who was named MVP of Wednesday’s Frontier League All-Star Game, had his eight-game hitting streak stopped. The Cincinnati LaSalle product had hits in 24 of his previous 36 at-bats to lift his average to a Frontier League-leading .376 entering play on Friday. Watson went 0-for-7 against the Miners in the series opener to drop his average to .363, which is still good enough to pace the league.

Quijano (1-4) wasn’t able to end his personal four-game losing streak despite working eight-plus innings and being charged with only two runs on seven hits. On a positive note, Basham’s 10th-inning single extended the rookie left fielder’s current consecutive games hitting streak to a career-high 13 games.

The series continues at 8:05 p.m. EDT Saturday with Florence sending right-hander Domingo Acosta (0-3, 4.99) to the mound against Southern Illinois side-arming right-hander Jon Qualls (2-2, 5.09).

Florence remains in second place in the East Division despite falling back below the .500 mark at 23-24. The Freedom fell to 6 ½ games behind front-running Washington, which defeated Kalamazoo on Friday