May 23, 2018 4 min read

After the Southern Illinois Miners posted the first losing season in the Frontier League franchise’s 11-year history last season, veteran manager Mike Pinto knew what needed fixed.

The Miners finished eighth in the 12-team league in ERA and ninth in walks allowed. A major upgrade, Pinto believed, was needed for the Miners’ pitching staff, especially the starting rotation.

So Pinto used the offseason to sign an impressive list of starting pitchers, including Williams Perez, who won seven games for the Atlanta Braves in 2015. The Miners also added Kurt Heyer, who pitched the University of Arizona to the national championship in 2012 and appeared in 36 games at the Class AAA level in the St. Louis Cardinals’ system, and Robby Rowland, a former third-round draft pick.

The Wild Things will not face Perez this week but saw too much of Rowland and Heyer during a doubleheader Wednesday night. Rowland threw a three-hit shutout in the opener as Southern Illinois won 4-0, and Heyer tossed six strong innings as the Miners completed the sweep with a 3-2 win at Wild Things Park.

“Midway through last year, I realized we weren’t going to be good enough, so I went into evaluation mode” Pinto said. “What could we be better at? We had to improve the rotation.

“When you have a good starting rotation, what it does is prevent losing streaks. When I look back at some of my best teams, we could go on long winning streaks because we were putting guys on the mound who would give us a chance to win every night.”

Rowland (3-0), who was in the Cardinals’ major-league camp last year, retired 12 consecutive Washington hitters at one stretch. He struck out five.

Chase Cunningham (0-1) threw a complete game for Washington in the opener, allowing five hits and only one earned run. For Cunningham, who is in his third season with Washington and is the ace of the pitching staff, the outing was a marked improvement over his first two starts, when he gave up nine walks and did not pitch past the fourth inning.

This time, Cunningham worked fast, walked only two and struck out six.

“It was good to go seven innings. It was good to get tired again,” Cunningham said. “I was getting back to last year – way more controlled.”

The Miners scored three times in the third but Cunningham should have been out of the inning unscathed. After allowing a one-out single to Marc DiLeo, the No. 9 hitter in the Miners’ lineup, DiLeo was at second base with two outs. John Holland then hit a weak popup that shortstop Justin Bohn, who was activated off the disabled list earlier in the day, dropped for an error as DiLeo scored the game’s first run.

Chance Shepard followed with a two-run homer, his league-leading fifth of the season, to center field to make it 3-0.

The only other run of the game came in the seventh, when Dileo’s two-out double off the right-field wall scored Joe Dudek.

“I was happy with the way Chase threw,” Washington manager Gregg Langbehn said. “The biggest difference in this outing was he threw more strikes. But his secondary pitches also were better.”

Southern Illinois broke a 2-2 tie in the fifth inning of the nightcap when Romeo Cortina’s single on an 0-2 pitch from Washington starter Mike Anthony (0-1) scored Chris Scura.

The one-run cushion was all Heyer (2-1) and reliever John Werner needed. Heyer gave up five hits and struck out seven over six innings. Werner got the final three outs for his third save.

Rowland and Heyer combined to pitch 13 innings and issued only one walk. Heyer did give up a solo homer to catcher Kyle Pollock that gave the Wild Things a 1-0 lead. It was Pollock’s third home run.

“We pitched pretty well but our offense, for the last five games, has been noncompetitive,” Langbehn said. “The starting pitching is getting better and we hope the offense will work itself out. We’re not getting sustained innings and not getting many scoring opportunities.”

Extra bases

Prior to the game, Washington signed pitcher Jamal Wilson, who had been released by Florence. Wilson pitched for three seasons at Jackson State and one at Southeastern (Fla.), an NAIA school. Wilson was 2-0 with a 2.70 ERA in 17 relief appearances last year. … The announced attendance of 799 was the third-smallest in Wild Things history. … It was Southern Illinois’ first sweep of a doubleheader in Washington since 2007. … Pinto is four wins from becoming the Frontier League’s all-time winningest manager.