TRAVERSE CITY -- It was a good news, bad news night for the Traverse City Beach Bums.
The good news: Steve Roberts and Nick Pepper retired all 19 batters they faced -- 16 by Roberts -- in 6 1/3 innings of relief in Monday's Frontier League game with Florence at Wuerfel Park.
The bad news: Florence roughed up Beach Bums starter Jon Haldis for six runs in the first three innings en route to a 6-0 win.
It was Traverse City's third loss in four games following the All-Star contest.
Midwest, who holds the worst record in the Frontier League with a 17-36 mark, took a weekend series from the Beach Bums with wins Friday and Saturday nights.
Brent Lotito, making his first professional start, allowed just four hits over the first seven innings to earn the win for the Freedom (28-27).
He got all the support he needed in the first inning when the Freedom pushed three runs across the plate.
All-Star game MVP Angel Molina opened the scoring with an RBI single.
Ryan Basham knocked in the second run on a sacrifice fly. John Welch's RBI triple drove in the third run.
Florence added two runs in the second on Garth McKinney's RBI double and Kelly Hunt's RBI single.
Billy Mottram's solo home run in the third, his fifth of the season, capped the scoring.
Traverse City (31-24) was held to five hits, two by catcher Pat Perry.
Steve Young, Mike Epping and Zack Kalter also contributed hits for TC. Kalter also added a pair of walks for the Bums.
The shutout was the second straight for Florence. It was the third time the Beach Bums have been blanked this season.
The two teams meet again tonight with Weston Curles (1-1, 7.27 ERA) pitching for the Beach Bums and Liam Shanahan (2-4, 6.16) for the Freedom. The series finale is Wednesday.
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