Eddie Gonzalez came through in a big way. Gonzalez hit a dramatic walk off homerun to give the Freedom a seven to six victory. His first extra base hit of the season extends the Freedom’s record to five wins and three losses.
The game did not start well for Florence, as the Midwest Sliders scored four runs in the top of the first inning. Jonnie Knoble led off the game with a walk and eventually scored on a sac fly from Troy Ferguson. Errors would plague the Freedom in the first inning as the Sliders scored four runs on only two hits.

Florence got one of the runs back in the home half of the inning. Johnny Washington hit a leadoff single and after a walk to Tim Grogan, he moved over to third on a wild pitch. Ryan Bashum grounded out to first but Washington was able to score on the play, cutting the Midwest lead to three runs.

Florence pitcher Josh Bruns settled down after the first inning. He threw four scoreless innings after the first inning and at one point retired nine straight batters. Bruns struck out four batters during that stretch of scoreless innings.

In the bottom of the third the Freedom cut the lead to four to three after Ryan Bashum homered, his first homerun of the season.

Florence took the lead in the bottom of the fifth, after Angel Molina hit a three run homerun scoring Grogan and Bashum.

The Freedom took a two run lead into the top of the sixth. Robbie Hine reached on an error by the Freedom shortstop Lopez to lead off the inning. Graham followed that up with a single to center field. Hine scored from second when Colon singled to center field. Pace singled through the right side to score Graham and tie the ball game. Midwest had runners on first and third when Florence Manager Jamie Keefe brought in pitcher Alain Quijano. Quijano was brilliant as he struck out the next two batters to end the threat.

Quijano pitched two more scoreless innings when he handed the ball over to Yosandy Ibanez in the top of the ninth. Ibanez got in some trouble early with the first two batters reaching second and third base. Midwest had two runners in scoring position with no outs when Ibanez pitched his way out of the jam. Ibanez struck out Vickers and then intentionally walked Robbie Hine to set up the double play. It would prove to be a good managerial decision as the next batter, Jason Graham, hit a hard one hopper back to the mound. Ibanez bare handed the ball and threw to home. Gonzalez completed the double play by throwing out Graham at first base to end the inning.

Florence failed to score in the bottom of the ninth which sent the game to extra innings for the first time this season. Scottie Dunham, who had come in to pinch run in the bottom of the ninth, was moved to center field in the top of the tenth. Angel Colon, the first batter of the inning, hit a line shot to center field. Dunham made a spectacular diving catch on the warning track to rob Colon of extra bases.

Midwest failed to score in the top of the tenth and the Freedom would make them pay when they came to bat in the bottom half of the inning. Eddie Gonzalez came to the plate with one out and hammered a pitch over the right field wall for the walk-off homerun.

Gonzalez is no stranger to walk-off homeruns. He hit one off current Florence pitching coach Curt Moenter in June of 2006 when Curt was a pitcher for the Florence Freedom.

The Freedom won two straight from the Midwest Sliders after dropping the first game of the series. The Freedom now posses a 5-3 record as the Midwest Sliders drop to 1-8.