The Frontier League has returned this season and the Florence Y’alls professional baseball team is making another run toward postseason glory.
The Y’alls are 30-18 at the exact halfway point of the 2021 season after losing to Southern Illinois Tuesday night.
Florence is one game ahead of Evansville (29-19) in the West Division. Southern Illinois is four games back at 26-22 and Gateway (Sauget, Illinois) is 11 back at 19-29. Florence plays at Southern Illinois Wend
Florence has not won a Frontier League title since coming to Florence. The franchise has lost in the league championship series three times, in 2012, 2017 and 2019.
The manager is Brian White, 31.
The Frontier League expanded to 14 teams this season, bringing in five teams from the former Can-Am League that are located on the East Coast and Canada. The 14 teams are in four divisions, and only the champion from Florence’s West Division will advance to the playoffs.
Florence has three games left with Evansville and eight with Southern Illinois.
The league is not having an all-star game this year as the teams enter the second half of the season.
Florence returns home to its stadium, Y’alls Ballpark, this weekend for a series against Joliet July 23-25. The Y’alls will next be home for nine games Aug. 3-8 and Aug. 11-12.
Team stats: The Y’alls are second in the league in runs scored, just one behind leader Schaumburg, who has played three fewer games. The team leads the league in home runs and doubles. The pitching staff is ninth in earned runs allowed.
Here's a look at some of the team's top players.
Jordan Brower: He has been with the team off and on since 2016. He leads the team in batting average at .336, which ranks 10th in the league. He has four home runs and 26 RBI. He also has nine steals.
Trevor Craport: Craport, 24, from Georgia is hitting .326 this season with 41 runs scored, which is tied for first in the league. He has 13 home runs, which is second in the league, and his 49 RBI is tops in the Frontier League. He plays a variety of positions for the Y’alls, same as he did while attending Georgia Tech. He was an 11th-round draft choice by Baltimore in 2017 and was in Class A ball for three years
Chad Sedio: He is hitting .335, top 10 in the league with seven home runs and 31 RBI, plus 39 runs scored. He is a Miami University product who also plays multiple positions.
Harrison DiNicola: He is hitting .315 with five homers and 34 RBI. The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi product spent the 2018-19 seasons in the Marlins system.
Jonaiker Villalobos: He has a 2-2 record and 2.93 ERA in 10 starts. The 22-year old Venezuela native spent the previous four seasons in the Miami Marlins system, three in rookie ball.
Jared Cheek: He has a 5-1 record and 3.34 ERA in 15 appearances, including two starts. The league lead is six wins. Cheek, 28, played for the University of Georgia and played in the Cubs system from 2015-17.
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