Wild Things collapse in 9th, Quebec walks off with three-peat
QUEBEC CITY – Anthony Quirion capped a five-run bottom of the ninth inning with a three-run walk-off homer, giving Quebec a 7-6 come-from behind victory over the Wild Things in Game 4 of the Frontier League championship series Saturday night before 4,297 at Stade Canac.
Quebec wins the best-of-5 series 3-1 and becomes the first team in Frontier League history to win three consecutive championships.
The Wild Things, meanwhile, are left to ponder how it went so wrong so fast. On the strength of a pair of three-run innings and some stellar pitching by starter Zach Kirby, Washington led 6-1 in the eighth inning and 6-2 in the ninth. Twice in the ninth, Quebec was down to its final strike, including the pitch when Quirion hit his three-run game-winning homer to left field off Brendan Nail, the Wild Things’ fourth pitcher of the game and second of the final inning.
Five times Washington has been to the Frontier League championship series and five times it has come up short of winning the title.
The Wild Things took a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning on a strange play. Jalen Miller made it 1-1 with an RBI single. With Andrew Czech on second base and Jalen Miller at first, Brandon McIlwain hit a ball off the right-field wall against Quebec starter Harley Gollert. The throw from the outfield to home plate was in time to get Czech but it was also to the first-base side of the plate. Capitales catcher Ruben Castro dove toward the plate but Czech beat the tag to score. Miller, however, was right behind Czech and dove over him and Castro, touching the plate for the third run of the inning.
In the fifth, Tyreque Reed hit a two-run homer and Wagner Lagrange back-to-back home runs, giving Washington a 6-1 lead with no outs.
The Wild Things’ lumber then went into a slumber against the Capitales’ bullpen, which held Washington to one hit over five innings.
Kirby allowed only three hits and one run over seven innings. He struck out seven and exited with a commanding 6-1 lead.
In the eighth, the Capitales scored a run on a bases-loaded walk by reliever Alex Carrillo. Quebec left the bases full in the eighth.
In the ninth, the Capitales pushed across two runs off closer Gyeongju Kim, scoring on a wild pitch and sacrifice fly that made it 6-4.
With a runner on second base and two outs, Nail was brought in to pitch to Justin Gideon, the Capitales’ cleanup hitter. Gideon reached on a broken-bat infield single that prompted Tom Vaeth to argue the safe call at first base.
Quirion, with two strikes, followed with his championship-winning blast that put another frustrating end to a Wild Things season.