December 8, 2014 - Frontier League (FL) Florence Freedom (Florence, KY) - The Florence Freedom announced Monday the hiring of Dennis Pelfrey to serve as their new manager.

Pelfrey spent the past four seasons coaching for the Gary SouthShore RailCats under veteran independent professional baseball manager Greg Tagert. His tenure included a 2013 American Association championship.

"It's great to return to the Frontier League," Pelfrey said. "I spent most of my playing career in this league and Florence is one of the top jobs."

Pelfrey, 37, played six seasons of professional baseball from 1999-2004 after his collegiate days at Northwood University in Texas. Most of those six seasons were spent in the Frontier League as Pelfrey manned multiple infield positions for the Dubois County Dragons, Kenosha Mamoths and the Springfield/Ozark Ducks.

"Dennis has a lot of experience in player acquisition with Gary as well as player development," Freedom owner Clint Brown said. "He has been a candidate for multiple managing positions in this league and we feel this is the perfect fit."

Pelfrey was actually teammates with former Freedom manager Fran Riordan in 2000 with the Dragons.

"I've already reached out to Fran and we talked for hours about the current team," Pelfrey said. "I've also talked with other managers and players in this league about the guys on this team. We are going to have an exciting brand of baseball for fans to watch. You can expect a lot of team speed and an emphasis on quality base running to manufacture runs."

Pelfrey's coaching staff will be announced at a later date.

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The Florence Freedom are members of the Frontier League of Professional Baseball. The Frontier League is the oldest continuously operating independent professional league, entering its 23rd season in 2015. For more information about the Frontier League visit http://www.frontierleague.com.

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Dennis Pelfrey Named New Freedom Manager