Wild Things walk off with win against Freedom
The Wild Things continued what they hope is a long march back up the Frontier League East Division standings with a 4-3 walk-off victory over the Florence Freedom Friday night at Consol Energy Park.
After Washington the potential tying run thrown out at home plate for the second out in the bottom ninth inning, Carter Bell and Andrew Heck hit consecutive run-scoring singles to rally the Wild Things to the win.
Washington pitcher Ernesto Zaragoza, who didn’t make it out of the first inning in his previous appearance against the Freedom, allowed three runs on three hits while walking four and hitting a batter over 5 1/3 innings.
The Washington right-hander had a no-hitter through five innings before experiencing trouble in the sixth. Daniel Fraga broke up the no-hit bid with a leadoff single and Zac Mitchell followed with a walk.
A one-out bloop single loaded the bases before Kyle Carter tied the score at 2-2 with a book-rule two-run double over the right-field fence.
“Ernie had a little bit of adversity going on,” said Wild Things manager Bob Bozzuto. “Today, he was breezing through five and I was a bit concerned with him because emotionally he knows what’s going on and you work a little harder.”
Florence then took the lead on an Ozzy Gonzalez RBI groundout to second base against Wild Things reliever Tim Giel.
It was the final Florence run as the Wild Things’ bullpen put up zeros the rest of the way.
“Can’t say enough about our relief pitching,” Heck said. “We didn’t bury ourselves and they just have to keep going with that. It’s huge for us.”
Washington (28-36) loaded the bases with no out in the seventh inning but couldn’t get the tying run across the plate as David Popkins struck out, Bell popped out to the catcher and Heck popped out to first base.
The Wild Things would not go down quietly, however, against Freedom closer Ed Kohout (3-2) as they broke through in the bottom of the ninth. Matt Ford singled with one out and Matt Peters followed with a walk.
Popkins then sent a sharp line drive to left field. Ford was sent home from second base but was thrown out by Mitchell for the inning’s second out.
With the Wild Things down to their final out, Bell would pick up for Ford with an RBI single to left field that tied the score. Heck followed with a walk-off single — his third hit and second RBI of the game — just over the glove of Freedom shortstop Travis Weaver.
“I didn’t have that timely hit earlier in the game,” said Heck. “Luckily for me, I fouled off the first pitch of the last at-bat. You sometimes get caught up in the moment and take a big swing, but Coach (Andrew) Davis yelled at me and got me back into the calm mindset to just go for a single to win it.”
Washington pulled to within six games of River City for the final Frontier League wild-card playoff spot with 32 games remaining.
“We needed that win,” Bozzuto said. “One at a time.”
Bozzuto was ejected after the second inning for arguing a foul-ball call on a bunt attempt by Washington’s Cody Herald that went to the backstop with runners on first and second and no outs. Herald would later ground into a double play. “The ball hit him in the leg,” Bozzuto said. “My issue is, you reward a pitcher for a pitch that was not over the plate. He’s on the inside and getting out of the way. It hits his leg, then the glove and the umpire calls it foul. You can’t do that.” … Wild Things starting pitcher Matt Sergey, who is on the disabled list, had an MRI Wednesday on his sore right shoulder. “He’ll be fine,” Bozzuto said. “He’s going to go through a little rehab to get ready for his next start.”