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Wild Things notebook: Bohn leaves team, calls it a career

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The Wild Things were thrown a curve Saturday when starting shortstop Justin Bohn informed team officials that he was retiring.

Bohn was in his second season with Washington and had started 15 of the last 16 games. A native of Jacksonville, Fla., Bohn was batting only .174 in 15 games with one home run and three RBI.

“We weren’t totally caught off guard,” Washington manager Gregg Langbehn said. “He’s getting married in the offseason and I’m glad he told us he was retiring when he did.”

Bohn was a seventh-round draft pick of the Marlins in 2013 and once considered a highly regarded prospect in Miami’s system. He played in the prestigious Arizona Fall League in 2014 for Salt River, where he played more games at shortstop than his teammate Trevor Story, who is currently the Colorado Rockies’ shortstop.

Bohn’s career stalled at the high-Class A level as he played parts of three seasons with Jupiter of the Florida State League before being released last year and signing with the Wild Things. He batted .233 in 52 games for Washington last season.

Bohn’s retirement might be eased a bit by the emergence of infielder Brett Marr, who has gone 13-for-31 (.419) in June. Marr has been playing second base but was the opening day starter at shortstop while Bohn was on the disabled list.

“Marr moves to shortstop full-time and Carter McEachern is capable of playing shortstop,” Langbehn said. “Lou Mele can play second base or third base. We have been carrying extra position players just to have a deeper bench and more options.”

With relief pitcher Nick Wegmann being drafted by the Seattle Mariners last week, Washington’s active roster was at the Frontier League-minimum 22 players Saturday night for its game against the Joliet Slammers at Wild Things Park.

Breaking ties

All levels of minor-league baseball are using the international tiebreaker rule – each half inning after the 10th begins with a runner on second base and no outs – for the first time this year but the Frontier League and some other independent leagues have been using it for years.

The Wild Things played their first tiebreaker game last week when it defeated Traverse City, 10-9, in 11 innings.

Since the Frontier League adopted the tiebreaker system in 2015, there have been 78 games decided by the gimmicky format with the home team winning 40 times and the visiting team winning 38 times.

The best tiebreaker team has been Southern Illinois, which has won 11 of 17. Washington has a 6-7 record in tiebreakers. Florence has lost the most tiebreaker games (12) and Joliet has played the fewest (7).

Minor details

Former Wild Things relief pitcher Jacob Condra-Bogan was recently assigned by the Kansas City Royals to Lexington of the Class A South Atlantic League.

Condra-Borgan played his senior season in 2017 at Georgia Southern University and was drafted in the 32nd round by the Toronto Blue Jays. However, he did not sign with the Blue Jays and instead joined the Wild Things last summer. He was a key pitcher in the Washington’s drive to the Frontier League playoffs, compiling a 1-0 record and 1.76 ERA in 11 relief appearances.

In the offseason, Condra-Bogan was traded to Lincoln of the American Association in exchange for a player to be named. The Royals signed Condra-Bogan before he could ever play a game for Lincoln.

In five outings for Lexington, Condra-Bogan has a 3.72 ERA and one save. He has 12 strikeouts in 9 2/3 innings.

A report in the Kansas City Star said that the 6-3, 220-pound Condra-Bogan’s fastball has hit 99 mph, a marked improvement over the velocity he showed with the Wild Things.

Getting the call

Players in the Frontier League aspire to make it to an affiliated minor league team, and so do many of the broadcasters.

Randy Gore, who called Wild Things games for 11 years, has joined the broadcast team for the West Virginia Black Bears, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ affiliate in Morgantown, W.Va., that plays in the New York-Penn League.

A Washington resident, Gore will call Black Bears home games and select road games.

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