Wild Things win home opener, 6-2
Not a bad way to start the home portion of the schedule.
It was a good mix of old and new for the Wild Things as they won the home opener 6-2 Tuesday night over the New York Boulders.
The new part was catcher Melvin Novoa, who drove in three runs, starting pitcher Greg Loukinen, who threw five shutout innings and third baseman Abraham Sequera, who had two hits and scored twice.
The old part was right fielder Anthony Brocato, who drove in two runs and hit a solo home run to the scoreboard in left centerfield.
The best part of the game for the Wild Things was the pitching. New York had led the league in runs last season, by a large margin, and had scored 31 times in its opening three-game series against New Jersey. Against Washington, New York had only four baserunners reach scoring position in the first seven innings, two of those in the first frame.
Loukinen (1-0) combined with four relievers on a six-hitter. The former Georgia Gwinett pitcher allowed two hits, walked three and struck out three in five innings. He was followed on the mound by Stephen Knapp, Andrew Mitchell, Christian James and Lukas Young.
“Their middle of their lineup is tough,” Washington manager Tom Vaeth said. “I thought Loukinen was really good. He was nervous pitching the home opener, but he made some good adjustments after the first inning.”
Washington took a shutout into the eighth inning but second baseman Tucker Nathans, who doubles as the Boulders’ hitting coach, smacked a two-out, two-run opposite field home run off James. Prior to that, Wild Things pitchers had allowed their opponents to score in only two of the season’s first 33 innings.
Washington scored in the first inning against New York starter Ryan Munoz (1-1). Shortstop Nick Gotta, another newcomer to Washington, led off with a double inside the third-base bag and scored after Sequera and Novoa each singled.
Sequera doubled to open the bottom of the third and scored on two groundouts, the second by Novoa.
“Those two early runs were the result of good at-bats,” Vaeth said. “We capitalized with runners in scoring position, which hasn’t always been the case in the past, but so far we’re doing a good job of that.”
New York put two runners on base in the top of the sixth but Mitchell, another first-year Washington player, was brought in and struck out Joe DeLuca to keep it a two-run game.
“That was earlier than I would have liked to go with (Mitchell),” Vaeth said. “The matchups were right and it was the right spot in the order. That was what you call a good hold.”
Brocato made it 3-0 with his home run in the bottom of the sixth.
Washington broke the game open with three runs in the seventh against the Boulders’ bullpen. Novoa had an RBI single, first baseman Andrew Czech drew a bases-loaded walk and Brocato lofted a sacrifice fly that scored Wagner Lagrange.
Extra bases
The Wild Things are 10-11 in home openers. … Attendance was 1,492, the smallest crowd for a home opener in the Wild Things’ 21-season history. … The game was the first played with the pitch clock at Wild Things Park and the time of game was 2:32. … Tanya Millette became the first female to work a Frontier League game as the home plate umpire Tuesday when she called balls and strikes in the New Jersey at Quebec game.