Schaumburg delivers knockout blow to Wild Things
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
The Wild Things' second run of the game, and the final run of the season, is scored as Cam Balego as he crosses the plate in the seventh inning of a 7-2 loss to the Schaumburg Boomers.
Mark Marietta/For the Observer-Reporter
The Wild Things' Wagner Lagrange is barely beaten to the bag by Schaumburg first baseman Braxton Davidson in the fourth inning of the Frontier League playoff game Sunday at Wild Things Park.
Sixty-two wins in the regular season. Zero in the playoffs.
The Wild Things’ postseason is over after only 18 innings.
Schaumburg, the nemesis from last year’s championship series, continued its postseason domination of Washington by rolling to a 7-2 victory Sunday night and sweeping the best-of-3 West Division series.
And it was a dominant performance by the Boomers, who were in control throughout the two games. Washington, which had won the West Division’s regular-season title and had home-field advantage for the entire postseason, trailed at the end of 17 of the 18 innings in the brief series.
Schaumburg never trailed in the two games and was able to have a beer-splattered victory celebration in the Picnic Pavilion at Wild Things Park for the second consecutive year. The Boomers won Games 4 and 5 of the finals here a year ago after being on the brink of elimination.
“Full credit to Schaumburg. They outplayed us in every facet of the game,” Washington manager Tom Vaeth said. “No one for us was good enough and that starts with me.”
It will go down as just another postseason shortfall for the Wild Things. They have been in the playoffs 11 times in their 20-season history but have yet to win a Frontier League championship. The 20-year title drought is the second-longest in all of independent baseball.
Schaumburg has won four league championships and will play for a fifth this week against the Quebec Capitales, who defeated the Ottawa Titans, 5-1, in Game 3 of the East Division series.
The Boomers didn’t exactly overpower the Wild Things in Game 2 but they did enough damage during a four-batter stretch in the second inning to make Washington play catch-up baseball the rest of the way.
Clint Hardy, Blake Berry and Will Salas hit consecutive singles — each with two strikes — to put Schaumburg ahead 1-0 against Washington starter Rob Whalen. Brett Milazzo followed with a two-run triple to the wall in right centerfield. Milazzo tripled in both games of the series.
Nick Oddo’s groundout to first base for the first out of the inning scored Milazzo and gave the Boomers a 4-0 lead.
“They put up crooked numbers,” Vaeth said of the Boomers. “In the second inning, they stuck it in the gap. In Game 1 at their place, they hit it over the fence. We didn’t get big hits.”
Other than that four-batter stretch, the Wild Things’ pitching was excellent until the ninth inning. The Boomers would not get another hit until two outs in the eighth.
Whalen gave up four hits and four runs in five innings. He struck out six and retired 11 of the last 12 batters he faced. Christian James followed with 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. Zack Erwin threw 1 1/3 innings.
With Schaumburg holding a two-run lead, Lukas Young pitched the top of the ninth and gave up a two-out, two-strike, two-run double to right field by Oddo, the No. 9 hitter in the Boomers’ lineup, that pushed Schaumburg’s lead back to four runs.
Schaumburg stole another run when Oddo swiped third base and the throw from Cam Balego, Washington’s catcher, bounced all the way into the Boomers’ bullpen, allowing Oddo to trot home and make the score 7-2.
The bottom five hitters in Schaumburg’s batting order combined for six hits and six RBI. Oddo drove in three runs.
“There was a stretch, when we were trying to clinch a playoff spot, when those guys did it there, too,” Schaumburg manager Jamie Bennett said. “Milazzo had been battling injuries and since he’s gotten healthy he’s been hot.”
Washington had plenty of chances to mount a comeback but could muster only a pair of runs, both coming on sacrifice flies, by Anthony Brocato in the sixth inning and Nick Ward in the seventh.
The Wild Things left 11 runners on base, including eight after the fifth inning. The lack of timely hitting sealed Washington’s fate.
“It’s disappointing because we had a good year,” Vaeth said. “It’s a disappointing end.”
The win continued an amazing string of postseason success for Schaumburg. The Boomers have never lost a postseason series in franchise history.
“They have a pedigree of winning,” Vaeth said. “They know how to win in the playoffs. They’ve never lost a playoff series. I know that because I heard it enough out there.”
Extra bases
Washington first baseman Andrew Czech had a 13-pitch at-bat that ended with a walk in the sixth inning. … Schaumburg has 10 players back from last year’s championship team.