Jul 8, 2016 5 min read

You can try to pick a culprit or a reason – consecutive run-scoring wild pitches that allowed Schaumburg to tie the score, a bullpen meltdown, an offense that didn’t score after the fourth inning – but it really doesn’t matter who, or what, was at fault.

Simply put, the Wild Things lost a game they should have won Friday night, preventing them from moving to within one game of first place in the Frontier League’s East Division.

Schaumburg, which had lost eight of its previous 10 games, erased a late three-run deficit and rallied to beat the Wild Things, 5-4, at Consol Energy Park.

Washington failed to protect a 4-1 lead as Schaumburg scored three times in a bizarre seventh inning and pushed across the game-winning run in the eighth on doubles by Mark Nelson and Ino Patron.

“I’m not upset,” Washington manager Gregg Langbehn said. “We played very well. We had a great start, we just didn’t finish, that’s all. We didn’t close it out.”

What the Wild Things did was let Schaumburg hang around, and when the Boomers finally had an opportunity to win, they seized it.

“Every pitch matters,” Langbehn said. “We’ve been saying that from Game 1 of the season. Schaumburg found a way to scrap and win the game.”

The Wild Things gave Schaumburg plenty of help, too, especially in the whacky seventh.

Washington scored single runs in each of the first four innings against Schaumburg starting pitcher Kagen Hopkins, who entered the game with a string of 20 consecutive scoreless innings. Third baseman Ricky Rodriguez (3-for-4) drove in two runs and right fielder David Popkins hit his seventh home run, a solo shot over the green batter’s eye in center field.

Wild Things starting pitcher Luke Wilkins was cruising along with a 4-1 lead when he hit Patron with the first pitch of the seventh inning. Though it seemed harmless at the time, it signaled the start of an inning that was quickly going to spiral out of control for Washington and its pitchers.

One out later, Wilkins gave up a solid single to Zack Weigel, the No. 9 hitter in the Boomers’ lineup, and that was all for the Wild Things’ pitcher. He exited after 6 1/3 innings, having given up six hits.

That’s when the inning and the momentum began shifting to Schaumburg.

Brian O’Keefe, who pitched well in a start Sunday against Florence, was brought in to replace Wilkins. After getting Griff Gordon to line out for the inning’s second out, O’Keefe gave up a dribbler up the third-base line that went for an infield single for Jordan Dean as Patron scored to make it 4-2.

“Hitting the first batter didn’t help, but we had an 0-2 count on a batter and gave up a little hit up the line,” Langbehn said.

Paul Kronenfeld then walked to load the bases and that was all for O’Keefe. Kolin Stanley was summoned from the bullpen and the right-hander retired the only batter he faced, Dusty Robinson, on an infield grounder but not before a two-pitch stretch that left players and coaches on both sides shaking their head in disbelief and some more mad than others.

Stanley threw a wild pitch that allowed Weigel to race home from third base and cut Washington’s lead to 4-3.

Before the next pitch was thrown, Schaumburg pitching coach T.J. Nall was ejected by home plate umpire Mike Shields. Nall, apparently, questioned a swinging strike call by Shields on the wild pitch.

When play finally resumed, Stanley’s next pitch also went to the backstop, allowing Dean to score and make it a 4-4 game before Robinson grounded out.

“That as a very odd at-bat,” Schaumburg manager Jamie Bennett said. “That’s why we say to keeping grinding it out. You never know what’s going to happen.”

What happened next was Schaumburg taking a 5-4 lead in the eighth. Nelson led off with an opposite-field double down the left-field line off reliever Devon Davis (1-1). One out later, Patron doubled off to the left-field wall to give the Boomers a 5-4 lead. Davis then retired the next five batters he faced, all on strikeouts.

“Our bullpen has been very good,” Langbehn said. “Those guys, we’ll keep going to them. They’ve been very reliable.”

Schaumburg reliever Jake Joyce (5-2) retired five of the six batters he faced. Closer Dexter Price, who earned his fifth save, gave up singles to Grant Fink and Rodriguez with one out in the ninth but induced a game-ending double play.

The game rained out Thursday night at Joliet has been rescheduled for Friday, Aug. 26 and will be part of a doubleheader at Consol Energy Park. It also will be one of two doubleheaders that week for Washington. The Wild Things have a twinbill Aug. 23 against Traverse City. In a piece of fortunate scheduling, the Wild Things will have an off day before each of those doubleheaders.