Wild Things sweep, move into tie for first place
The Frontier League’s regular season has been reduced to an 11-day sprint to the finish. And the Wild Things and Sussex County Miners will enter the starting blocks side by side.
Washington swept a doubleheader Wednesday night, beating the New York Boulders, 5-3 and 4-2. Combined with Quebec’s 8-4 come-from-behind win over Sussex County, the Wild Things have moved into a tie with the Miners for first place in the Northeast Division. This is the first day all season that the Wild Things have spent in first place.
Washington will play a four-game weekend series at Sussex County beginning Friday night.
After winning the opener, the makeup from Tuesday night’s rainout, Washington scored three times in the first inning of the nightcap, added another in the second and then let pitchers Rob Whalen, Ben Vicini and Dan Kubiuk do the rest.
Scotty Dubrule and Grant Heyman hit consecutive RBI triples in the first inning of the second game off New York starter Andy Hammond (4-2) and Hector Roa lofted a sacrifice fly to score Heyman and make it 3-0.
Tristian Peterson’s sacrifice fly in the second scored Andrew Czech and gave Washington a 4-0 lead.
Whalen, the first former major leaguer to play for Washington, started the nightcap and went 3 1/3 innings. He gave up seven hits but only one run and left with a 4-1 lead. Vincini (8-0), who has been Washington’s good luck charm, was strong over 2 2/3 innings, though he did give up a solo home run by catcher Phil Capra in the sixth that cut the Washington lead to 4-2.
Kubiuk pitched the seventh in 1-2-3 fashion to earn his first career save.
Washington won the opener by scoring four runs in the fifth inning to break a 1-1 tie.
Third baseman Andrew Sohn had a broken-bat single to right centerfield that scored pinch-runner Cam Phelts and gave Washington a 2-1 lead. Phelts ran for Czech, who drew a leadoff walk off New York starter Robby Rowland (3-4), a former third-round draft pick of the St. Louis Cardinals. Phelts stole second base and was bunted to third by Nick Ward.
Consecutive walks to Dubrule and Peterson loaded the bases, and Heyman was hit by a pitch from Boulders reliever Dylan Smith to force in a run, and catcher Trevor Casanova had a single through the right side of the infield that produced what turned out to be two pivotal insurance runs.
Washington starter Ryan Hennen (10-3) pitched five innings, giving up one unearned run to lower his league-leading ERA to 2.11. Hennen allowed three hits and struck out five. He did not allow a walk and threw only 60 pitches, which keeps on schedule to throw Sunday at Sussex County.
New York’s run against Hennen came with the benefit of an error by the Washington pitcher. With Ray Hernandez on second base and two outs in the third, Jack Sundberg put a perfect bunt single up the third-base line that Hennen fielded. Hernandez made a wide turn at third base and Hennen made a quick throw to Sohn. The throw, however, struck Hernandez in the batting helmet and bounced away, allowing the game’s first run to score.
Washington tied it at 1-1 in the fourth in on the first of Casanova’s three RBI in the game.
The Boulders scored single runs in the sixth and seventh innings against relievers Dan Kubiuk and Zack Strecker, respectively. Strecker got the game’s final three outs for his 20th save.
Notes
Right fielder Bralin Jackson (illness) was scratched from the lineup for the opener and did not play in either game. … Phelts threw out a runner at home plate from center field in the fourth inning of the second game. … The Wild Things and Boulders will play the series finale at 7:05 tonight.