Sep 13, 2018 3 min read

Quick, check lost-and-found.

The Wild Things’ clutch hitting has to be there. And you might find the Joliet Slammers’ offense there, too.

In the first two games of the Frontier League championship series, Washington, the highest-scoring team during the regular season, produced only four runs. Joliet, meanwhile, mustered only five.

The best-of-5 series is tied 1-1 and resumes tonight (8:05 p.m.) at Joliet Route 66 Stadium. Game 4 also will be played in Joliet Saturday (7:05 p.m.).

Runs figure to be at a premium again in Game 3 as Joliet will send their ace pitcher, right-hander Liam O’Sullivan (11-4, 3.15), to the mound against Washington’s Michael Austin (3-3, 4.08). Sullivan is 1-1 in the postseason but is coming off 62/3 shutout innings in the Slammers’ Game 5 and series-clinching victory over River City in the first round Sunday.

“We’re a team built on pitching and defense,” said Joliet manager Jeff Isom. “We need to have low-scoring games for us to win. We expected this series to be games that are tooth-and-nail to the end.”

That’s what has happened. Washington scored three runs in the seventh inning to win 3-2 in Game 1. The Slammers scored two unearned runs Wednesday night and had to sweat out a ninth-inning potential game-tying home run by Washington’s Dom Iero that was ruled a foul ball in Joliet’s 3-1 victory.

Iero, a third baseman, has provided much of Washington’s offense in the two games. He has two solo home runs that have accounted for half of the Wild Things’ scoring output.

Iero, who played his college baseball at Kent State, began the season with Joliet before being released Aug. 14. He was signed by the Wild Things 10 days later, after third baseman Mike Hill and Brett Marr were placed on the disabled list.

Iero knows much about both teams and expected a low-scoring series.

“Joliet is based on pitching and defense,” Iero said. “I think we have the whole package, pitching, hitting and defense. I expected this to be a close championship series, really competitive.”

That, it has been. And if Washington is going to win, or at least force a decisive Game 5 back at Wild Things Park, it must get its offense going. In Game 2, the Wild Things were hitless with runners in scoring position.

“We have to cash in when we have those chances,” Washington manager Gregg Langbehn said. “And we didn’t find enough of those chances (in Game 2).”

Extra bases

The teams split six games at Joliet during the regular season. … In two starts against Washington, O’Sullivan is 2-0 and has given up six runs in 16 innings. … Austin is 1-0 against the Slammers, allowing only an unearned run in seven innings during a 2-1 Wild Things win July 25 in Washington.