Wild Things swept by River City
Shortstop Ryan Kresky waits to tag out River City’s Eric Williams who hit a long single and tried to stretch it to a double in the first inning Thursday. The throw from Scott Kalamar was in time.
The Wild Things’ Danny Poma fist-bumps his teammates during the pregame introductions at River City before Game 2 of the Frontier League semifinal series Wednesday night.
Players in the Wild Things’ dugout in the top of the ninth inning Wednesday night hope for a comeback. River City advanced to the Frontier League finals with a 4-1 victory over Washington and won the series 2-0.
O’FALLON, Mo. – Starting pitcher Kyle Brady and four relievers combined on a four-hitter Thursday night as the River City Rascals defeated the Wild Things 4-1 and swept their best-of-3 Frontier League semifinal series.
River City scored three runs in the bottom of the third inning and the Rascals’ pitchers retired 19 consecutive Washington hitters to end the game.
The Rascals will play defending champion Schaumburg in the All-West Division finals that begins Saturday night. Schaumburg defeated Southern Illinois 2-1 in the other semifinal. The Boomers lost the series opener but rallied to win the next two games over the Miners on the road.
Washington took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Austin Wobrock reached on an infield single, advanced on a groundout and scored on a single by Garrett Rau. Scott Kalamar followed with a single, but he would be the final batter to reach base for Washington, which scored only two runs in 21 innings during the series.
The Rascals made it 1-1 on Brian McConkey’s run-scoring groundout. Hector Crespo followed with a two-run double off Washington starter Scott Dunn to give River City the lead for good at 3-1.
Curran Redal doubled in the fourth off reliever Matt Sergey, was bunted to third base and scored the game’s final run on a single by Eric Williams.
Brady allowed four hits over six innings. He struck out seven and did not issue a walk. Brady won for only the third time in 11 starts with each win coming against the Wild Things and all since Aug. 21. In each of those three wins over Washington, Dunn was the losing pitcher.
River City relief pitchers Nick Kennedy, Patrick Crider, Trey Lambert and Gabe Shaw combined for three hitless innings. They struck out seven of the nine batters they faced.