Jul 3, 2024 By Chris Dugan 5 min read

Hours before the Wild Things’ game Wednesday night against Florence, Washington manager Tom Vaeth and third baseman Tommy Caufield “walked the field” and had an important talk. Caufield had gotten off to a fast start this season but had recently hit a rough patch, both at the plate and with the glove.

“Tommy has been struggling,” Vaeth said. “Sometimes you have to remind young guys that the sky is not falling on them. He’s a good player, and good players will struggle at times.”

Then, prior to batting practice, Vaeth pointed out to his hitters that one of the reasons they have been struggling to score over the past week was they were taking too many hittable fastballs early in at-bats. As a result, they had to swing at too many tough breaking balls in two-strike counts, resulting in an strikeouts.

Caufield took all of Vaeth’s advice and applied it with the score tied in the eighth inning.

The lefty hitter ambushed a cutter from Florence reliever Alex Wagner on the first pitch of the at-bat and drove it to where baseballs rarely go at Wild Things Park. Caufield hit the ball over the centerfield wall and off the IC Light sign on the top row of advertisements, just to the left of the batter’s eye. The home run was a three-run blast and gave Washington a 6-3 victory.

“When I got up to the plate, I wanted to be more aggressive on the first pitch,” Caufield explained. “I got a good swing on a cutter. That one felt good.”

The game alternated between good and frustrating for Washington, which remained a half-game behind first-place Lake Erie in the Frontier League’s West Division standings.

Florence scored in the top of the first inning against Washington pitcher Malik Barrington, who was making his first start since coming off the injured list. The Wild Things tied the score in the bottom of the first and then took a 3-1 lead in the second when Florence starter Randy Absahier, a rookie out of the University Hawaii, suddenly lost his command, throwing 12 consecutive balls, the last one forcing home Evan Berkey. Caleb McNeely’s sacrifice fly scored Robert Chayka and made it 3-1.

Barrington worked out of trouble in the first two innings before beginning a remarkable run with the final out in the second. He struck out Blaze O’Saben to end the second and then struck out each of the next six Florence batters.

Barrington, however, hit Ed Johnson with a pitch to start the fifth and Alberti Chavez followed with a broken-bat single, only the second Florence hit of the game. Barrington walked Craig Massey with two outs to load the bases and Vaeth went to the bullpen, bringing in Nick MacDonald.

“I didn’t want him to go that far, but he pitched so well from innings two through four that I felt we should give him a chance to get a win,” Vaeth explained. “I didn’t have a pitch count in mind, but I wasn’t in position to let him go any further. He had a manageable number of pitches at the start of the fifth, but those first three batters of the inning wrecked his count.”

MacDonald walked Hank Zeisler on four pitches to force in a run and trim Washington’s lead to 3-2.

In the seventh, Washington reliever Brendan Nail (1-0), who was signed Tuesday, gave up a leadoff triple to Chavez, who scored on a groundout by O’Saben to tie the score at 3-3.

It didn’t stay tied for long. Catcher J.C. Santini worked a leadoff walk against Wagner (0-1) to start the bottom of the seventh and Caleb McNeely had a one-out single through the infield. That brought Caufield to the plate. His seventh home run of the season gave the Wild Things a 6-3 lead.

Christian James pitched the eighth inning for Washington and Gyeongju Kim threw a 1-2-3 ninth for his 11 save.

Barrington gave up two hits and two runs over 4 2/3 innings. He walked four but struck out nine.

His bugaboo all year has been walks,” Vaeth said. “The runs that have scored against him have usually gotten on base with a walk. The runs tonight got on base with a walk and hit batsman. When he’s throwing strikes, not many people have had really good swings against him.”

Extra bases

Prior to the game, Washington signed outfielder Brandon McIlwain, a former New York Mets farmhand, and released Alex Ovalles from the injured list. Starting pitcher Aaron Forrest was placed on the 7-day injured list. McIlwain, a Pennsylvania native, played 44 games this year with Binghamton in the Class AA Eastern League. … The Frontier League will release on Friday the rosters for the all-star game, which will be played July 17 in Quebec.