Bad inning costly to Wild Things
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. – One bad inning – the first – proved costly to the Wild Things as they lost to the Traverse City Beach Bums, 5-4, Thursday night at Wuerfel Park.
Traverse City scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning and went on to sweep the three-game series.
Washington starting pitcher Matt Fraudin (0-1), an Upper St. Clair native who was making his third professional appearance, gave up three hits and three consecutive walks in the opening inning. Yazy Arbelo hit a two-run single for the Beach Bums.
After the rocky start, Fraudin retired 15 consecutive batters and Washington chipped away at the deficit. In the fourth inning, Matt Peters had an RBI double and recently signed Jimmy Yezzo added a two-run single to make it 5-3.
In the eighth, Matt Ford singled, stole second base and scored on David Popkins’ sacrifice fly to bring Washington to within 5-4. The Wild Things had a runner on second base with one out in the ninth but Andrew Brockett struck out the game’s last two batters.