Lake Erie walks past Wild Things
AVON, Ohio – The Wild Things might be walking out of playoff contention in the Frontier League’s East Division.
Lake Erie took advantage of eight walks by Washington starting pitcher A.J. Bogucki to forge an early five-run lead and defeated the Wild Things 7-6 Friday night.
Washington drops to 8½ games behind the first-place Crushers, who won their sixth in a row.
Bogucki (2-3) walked each of the first four batters in the bottom of the first inning, two more in the second and two in the third before exiting the game. Five of the eight walks came around to score as Lake Erie pushed across two runs in each of the first three innings for a 6-1 lead.
Cameron Baranek had a two-run single and Alex Murphy, who was signed earlier in the day, had an RBI double to pull Washington to within 6-4.
Lake Erie scored a run on a wild pitch in the sixth to make it 7-4. The Wild Things’ Hector Roa smacked a two-run homer in the ninth but the Wild Things fell one run short.
Washington’s record dropped to 3-14 in games decided by one run.