Sep 6, 2015 4 min read

The Wild Things have to be wondering why they didn’t do this while they still had something to play for this season.

Luke Wilkins pitched a complete game, Sam Mende had three hits and drove in two runs, and the Wild Things defeated the Windy City ThunderBolts, 7-1, in the regular-season finale Sunday afternoon at sun-baked Consol Energy Park.

Washington finished the season with a 42-54 record and in fifth place in the Frontier League’s seven-team East Division. The win moved Washington one spot behind Windy City (41-55) in next year’s draft.

The Wild Things won the final two games of the series, getting a walk-off victory Saturday night and following it with the fourth complete game by Wilkins (9-5). It was the first nine-inning complete game for the native of Sydney, Australia.

Wilkins scattered seven hits, walked only one and struck out a career-high nine. Wilkins, who was playing professional baseball in the United States for the first time after four seasons in the Australian Baseball League, led the Wild Things in both wins and innings pitched (125).

“Luke did a nice job,” Washington manager Bob Buzzuto said. “Late in the season, around the sixth and seventh innings of games, Luke would try to be too fine. I finally told him last week not to nibble because your stuff it too good to do that. You could see that late in this game.”

Wilkins retired the last 12 Windy City batters, including five by strikeout. The only run the ThunderBolts scored came in the sixth, when Michael Torres led off with a double into the right-field corner and scored when Austin Gallagher followed with a double to left centerfield. Windy City didn’t have another baserunner the rest of the game.

“It was a little looser atmosphere being the last game of the season,” Wilkins said. “The hitters didn’t want to walk, so I knew they would be aggressive. My pitching style’s strength is against super-aggressive hitters.”

Wilkins called his first year in the Frontier League a learning experience. He had never thrown 125 innings over a three-month period.

“In the ABL, I threw 70 innings this year, then the 125 here,” Wilkins pointed out. “It was a big year for me. I think all those innings hurt my numbers at the end of the season.”

Washington gave Wilkins all the offensive support he would need by scoring a run in the third inning and two more in the fourth, when the Wild Things hit only one ball out of the infield and it went for an out.

In the second, David Popkins singled and scored on a double by Danny Poma. In the fourth, Poma led off with an infield single and advanced on Austin Wobrock’s infield hit. A walk by Maxx Garrett loaded the bases and Windy City starter Brady Muller (0-1) walked Matt Ford to make it 2-0. Mende delivered another infield hit for Washington as Wobrock scored to make it 3-0.

After Windy City pulled to within 3-1, Mende blooped a double down the right-field line in the sixth that scored Ford and gave Washington another three-run lead.

Two walks in the seventh, an RBI single by Wobrock and Andrew Heck’s two-run double concluded the scoring.

“Things didn’t go as planned this year,” Bozzuto said, “but one thing I can say is these guys battled. This league is very competitive. There’s a fine line between winning and losing and we gave away too many potential wins early in the year.”

There was a scoring change in Saturday night’s game that switched the final score from 5-3 to 4-3. Though Poma’s game-winning, bases-loaded hit bounced over the outfield wall, it was not scored a book-rule double. Citing Rule 4.11 C, the scorekeeper credited Poma with a single and only one RBI.