Sep 9, 2024 By Chris Dugan 4 min read

For the past few months, the Wild Things and Quebec Capitales have been watching one another from afar, through boxscores and video, both expecting the Frontier League season would come down to this.

Washington and Quebec have been the league’s two best teams since late June and their matchup in the league’s best-of-5 championship series is hardly surprising. Quebec won the East Division title by 10 games with a 64-32 record and will be trying for its third consecutive Frontier League championship. Washington won the West Division by eight games with a league-best 67-28 record and will be playing in the finals for the fifth time.

Game 1 is tonight (7:05) at Wild Things Park. Game 2 is Wednesday night (6:05) and the series shifts to Canada for Game 3 Friday.

This will be the first time the Wild Things and Capitales have met this season. Washington played four teams from the East Division during the regular season and Quebec was not one of them.

“Lack of familiarity is the challenge,” Washington manager Tom Vaeth said. “There is a little of the unknown. On the hitting side, we’ve not seen the arm actions from their pitchers and the velocities. It’s the same thing for our pitchers. We haven’t faced their guys. You combat that with preparation work. You watch as much video as you can and come up with a game plan of how to get their hitters out.

“You never want to look too far ahead, but last week we knew there was a possibility that we’d be playing Quebec and we started looking more at them.”

Washington had an easier time in its division finals series against Lake Erie than Quebec did against Ottawa. The Wild Things swept Lake Erie with a pair of shutouts, 2-0 and 10-0. Quebec lost Game 1 at Ottawa before winning the next two, including 8-7 in Game 3 Sunday. Ottawa held leads of 5-1 and 6-3 in Game 3.

Quebec, however, showed championship poise and confidence after falling behind Ottawa and rallied for its spot in the finals.

From the size of its market, to the size of its wallet, to the size of its trophy case, to the size of its loyal following, Quebec is everything that is big about the small world of independent baseball. Before joining the Frontier League, the Capitales won six championships in a nine-year span in the now-defunct Can-Am League.

“They’re always a good club. There’s a reason they are the two-time defending champions,” Vaeth said.

Vaeth says that starts with the Capitales’ manager, Pat Scalabrini, who played for Winnipeg in the American Association when Vaeth was the team’s hitting coach.

“Every good team takes on the personality of its manager,” Vaeth said. “Pat was always a gritty player who would fight tooth and nail. So we know those guys won’t roll over. They won’t beat themselves.”

Washington hasn’t done that, either. The Wild Things committed the fewest errors in the league during the regular season and the pitching staff issued the fewest walks.

Washington will send lefthander Kobe Foster to the mound to pitch Game 1. Foster tossed seven shutout innings in Game 1 against Lake Erie last Thursday. Vaeth said Dariel Fregio (9-4, 4.07) in Game 2.

Quebec is expected to start righthander Ryan Sandberg (7-2, 2.18) tonight. The Capitales could go with righthander James Bradwell (12-0, 2.72), who was the Frontier League Pitcher of the Year. He started Game 1 last Thursday against Ottawa and threw five innings.

“If anything, our guys on the pitching staff might be a little more rested. They used three guys out of the bullpen Sunday,” Vaeth pointed out. “But it all evens out in the end.”

Quebec’s offense is led by all-star outfielder Justin Gideon, who batted .287 with 20 home runs, 65 RBI and 19 stolen bases.