Wild Things, Otters ready for one-game playoff
Bosse Field in Evansville, Ind., is the third-oldest ballpark in the United States that still hosts professional baseball.
Only Wrigley Field in Chicago and Fenway Park in Boston are older than Bosse, a 7,180-seat park that opened in 1915 at a cost of $65,000. Now in its 100th season, Bosse will host postseason baseball for the first time since 2006, when the Wild Things play at the Evansville Otters tonight (7:35 p.m.) in a Frontier League wild-card playoff game.
The Otters earned the right to host the game by defeating the Wild Things 1-0 in the regular-season finale Thursday at Consol Energy Park. The win gave Evansville (57-37) a second-place finish in the East Division and the No. 4 seed for the six-team playoffs. Washington (57-39) finished one game behind Evansville and is the No. 5 seed.
The Wild Things had a pair of chances to finish ahead of the Otters and host the one-game playoff but lost the final two games of the regular season in excruciating fashion. Evansville won Thursday on a seventh-inning solo home run over the left-field foul pole by outfielder Chris Sweeney, a Pennsylvania native. Washington’s offense stranded a runner at third base three times and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
“It was a game that had a playoff vibe,” Evansville manager Andy McCauley said.
Evansville has all the momentum, the home crowd and the knowledge it won four of five games against Washington at Bosse. Three of those four Evansville wins were walk-off victories.
“It’s absolutely great to be playing at home,” McCauley said. “But the momentum goes out the window after the first pitch is thrown. It’s two good teams, and it should be another great game.”
Washington manager Bob Bozzuto tried to downplay the importance of Thursday night’s outcome, but the silence in the Wild Things’ clubhouse afterward indicated it was a loss and missed opportunity that stung.
“A new season begins,” Bozzuto said. “Now, it’s sudden victory or sudden death. Win this game and we’re right back at home Monday for a best-of-3. That’s what we’re counting on. When the game begins Saturday, everybody’s record is 0-0.”
Washington will pitch lefty Zac Fuesser (9-2, 2.25), who finished second in the league in ERA. A veteran of five seasons in the Pittsburgh Pirates system, Fuesser did not pitch against Evansville during the regular season.
Evansville, which is in the playoffs for the first time in eight years, will counter with Phillip Olsen (9-3, 2.71), a 6-6 right-hander. Olsen made one start against the Wild Things. In a seven-inning outing Aug. 15, he gave up seven hits and four runs but did not get a decision in a 5-4 Otters victory. Olsen has won each of his last six decisions.
It will be Washington’s first playoff game since the 2007 championship series. It comes at the end of a season in which the Wild Things had both a manager and coach resign and went two weeks without a manager, using a coach-by-committee approach.
“I tip my cap to what the Washington players have accomplished with all they’ve gone through,” McCauley said.
The winner of the game advances to the best-of-3 semifinals that begin Monday and will play either East Division champion Southern Illinois or West winner River City. The wild-card team will host Game 1 Monday night with Games 2 and 3 at the division champion.
“It was a great regular season, but now we turn our attention to the playoffs. There are eight other teams who would love to be in the situation we’re in,” Bozzuto said.
No. 6 seed Lake Erie will play at No. 3 and defending champion Schaumburg in the other wild-card game. … The lowest-remaining seed after Saturday will play top-seeded River City in the semifinals. The highest-remaining wild card plays Southern Illinois.