close

Harris breaks out of slump, Wild Things defeat Evansville

5 min read
article image -

With one swat of a hanging slider from Evansville pitcher Randy Wynne, James Harris released weeks of pent-up frustration and put an impressive exclamation point on the first half of the Frontier League season for the Wild Things.

Harris connected for a laser beam of a three-run homer during Washington’s four-run fifth inning Sunday that sent the Wild Things to an 8-4 victory over the Otters on Faith Night.

The Wild Things had faith that Harris would break out of a rut that saw him go 7-for-44 over the past two weeks. The former first-round draft pick of the Tampa Bay Rays had been the cog in the Wild Things fast start to the season but had been getting a steady dose of offspeed pitches in recent weeks and his frustration level was mounting as quickly as his batting average was dropping.

“It has been a rough last couple of weeks,” Harris admitted. “I’ve been hitting balls hard but right at people. Teams have been giving me a lot of offspeed, more offspeed and more offspeed. I had been talking to Banger (manager Gregg Langbehn) and he had me make some adjustments, which is the name of the game.”

The adjustment was to look for the pitcher’s breaking ball instead of sitting on fastballs. When one reached Harris’ wheelhouse, he remembered how to drive it.

Harris did just that on a 76 mph slider from Wynne (4-5) and deposited it off the middle row of advertising signs just to the left of the scoreboard for a three-run homer that gave the Wild Things a 5-1 lead. It was Harris’ eighth home run of the season but the first since June 10.

It also was the last of three home runs for Washington. Second baseman Carter McEachern hit his second homer of the week and the season, a solo shot in the first inning, and first baseman Conner Simonetti hit his initial homer with Washington, also a solo shot in the second. McEachern went 4-for-4.

Washington’s 13-hit attack supported starting pitcher Trevor Bradley (3-2) and four relievers as the Wild Things became the first team in the league to 30 wins. Washington enters the all-star break in first place in the East Division with a three-game lead over both Joliet and Lake Erie.

The Wild Things won two of the three games in the series against Evansville, which began the weekend in a three-way tie for the West Division lead. It was a much better way to enter the all-star break than last year, when Washington was swept at home by a lowly Gateway team.

“I’m happy with the way these past few days went,” Langbehn said. “Last year, before the all-star break, we laid an egg. We’ve managed to stay in first place without playing great for the past few weeks and we now have the tiebreaker on Florence and Evansville, two teams at the top of their division. It was a big week for us and we responded well.”

The key fifth inning started with a leadoff single by Brett Marr and a perfectly placed bunt single by Mick Fennell. Harris then drilled his three-run homer. Before the frame ended, Hector Roa drove in Roman Collins to give Washington a 6-1 lead.

Bradley gave up four hits, two walks and one run over five innings. He struck out five and exited after throwing 84 pitches.

“He wanted to go back out there,” Langbehn said. “I explained my reasoning to him. I had (Michael) Austin available and wanted to get him an inning, and my plan was to use guys one inning each to the end.”

Evansville tried to mount a comeback, pushing across a run against Austin, a starter who was making his first relief appearance, in the sixth but Washington answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning. One run scored on a McEachern single, the other on a throwing error.

The Otters scored twice in the seventh before reliever Davis Adkins came on to get out of a jam and turn the game over to closer Zach Strecker in the ninth.

“I’m happy with the way we’ve played,” Harris said. “We hit a couple of slow patches but we found ways to win some games. Our hitting has been pretty much steady.”

Extra bases

The attendance was listed as 4,414, which was the largest for a Wild Things home game, breaking the record of 4,247 for a game against Florence Aug. 23, 2003. Sunday’s attendance was boosted because of a car show held in the parking lot prior to the game and attendees received tickets to the ballgame. The actual in-ballpark number was closer to 2,500. … Washington is off until Friday night when it hosts Lake Erie.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today