Wild Things edge Lake Erie to move closer to division title
Having already clinched a berth in the Frontier League playoffs, Washington can now focus on winning the West Division, which is within striking distance after a 3-2 victory over Lake Erie on Saturday night at Wild Things Park.
Washington improved to 57-25 with 13 games remaining in the regular season. Gateway sits in second place at 50-32. The Crushers (45-37) have a 3 ½ game lead over Schaumburg (42-41) for the third wild-card spot.
The Wild Things can knock Lake Erie out of the race for the division championship with a victory tonight in the series finale at Wild Things Park. The first pitch is scheduled for 5:35 p.m.
The Crushers are five games behind the Grizzlies for second place in the division. The second-place team will host the third-place team in the wild-card round while the division winners can rest.
Lake Erie took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on Jake Guenther’s RBI single.
Washington got its offense going in the fifth when Brandon McIlwain and Ethan Wilder walked before scoring on Caleb McNeely’s three-run home run for a 3-1 advantage. McNeely’s blast was his 18th of the season.
Guenther hit a solo homer in the sixth to cut the deficit to one, but Christian James, Alex Carrillo and Gyeongju Kim each pitched a scoreless inning to close out the win for the home team.
James struck out the side in the seventh before Carrillo allowed a walk and a single in the eighth, but struck out three.
The Crushers had the go-ahead runner on base in the ninth, but Kim got out of the jam for his league-leading 22nd save.
Zach Kirby started and earned the pitching victory, his eighth this season, after yielding two runs on five hits over six innings. He matched a season and career high in strikeouts with nine and walked two.