Aug 31, 2025 By Chris Dugan 4 min read

The Washington Wild Things celebrate their Frontier League Central Division title on the field at EQT Park on Sunday night.

There is a long sign beyond the left-field wall at EQT Park that lists all of the years the Wild Things have won division titles. That sign needs to be updated before next year to include 2025.

Washington capped an amazing and unlikely late-season charge to the top of the Central Division on Sunday night when it won the 10th title in franchise history.

And this one ended in a different way than all the others.

Washington had an opportunity to clinch the division title by simply beating the Down East Bird Dawgs, but the Wild Things let that chance slip away with a frustrating 7-6 loss in the regular-season finale.

There were 857 games played in the Frontier League this season and the Wild Things had to wait for the result of Game No. 857 to find out who, when and where they will play Wednesday night in the first round of the playoffs.

That loss to Down East meant Lake Erie could win the Central with a victory at Joliet in the final game of the night and the regular season, which made the Wild Things players, coaches and front office staff more than casual observers, Following along on FrontierLeagueTV, they watched Joliet complete a three-game series sweep by beating Lake Erie, 5-1.

Washington won the division title with a 54-42 record, one game better than Lake Erie (52-42). The Crushers had two games that were cancelled – one each against New York and New Jersey – that could not be made up.

The Wild Things were four games out of first place entering Aug. 22 but surged to the title by sweeping Mississippi to clinch a playoff berth, then winning series against Joliet and Down East. Meanwhile, Lake Erie went 2-8 over its final 10 games.

Washington will begin the playoffs as the No. 2 seed in the Midwest Conference and will play the third-seeded Gateway Grizzlies (56-40), the West Division runner-up, in a best-of-3 series. Game 1 will be Wednesday in Sauget, Ill. Games 2 and 3, if necessary, will be at EQT Park on Friday and Saturday.

Lake Erie will play West Division champion Schaumburg in the other Midwest Conference playoff series.

While the waiting was the hardest part for the Wild Things, it was because of the loss to Down East.

Washington had plenty of opportunities to clinch the division title. Three times Washington forged a lead, only to let each slip away in the next half-inning.

“We didn’t pitch well,” Washington manager Tom Vaeth said bluntly. “We didn’t get a shutdown inning. We would get the lead and give it away because we couldn’t get a shutdown inning. We were 0-for-3 and they were 3-for-3.

“We didn’t do a good job of getting the ball down in the strike zone today. Everything was up.”

Washington starter Dylan Kirkeby pitched four innings, giving up six hits and three runs. He left with the score tied 3-3. Reliever Christian Diaz (1-1) escaped the fifth inning unscathed and Washington took a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the inning when Wagner Lagrange singled, advanced to third on a double by Cole Fowler (3-for-5) and scored on Charles Mack’s sacrifice fly.

Washington, however, couldn’t get the shutdown inning after forging the lead. The first batter Diaz faced in the sixth, Yeniel Laboy, hit a home run over the video board in right field to tie the score. The next batter, Taylor Blaum, singled, moved to third base on a double by Trotter Harlan and gave the Bird Dawgs a 6-5 lead when he scored on a single by Kalae Harrison. Yassel Pino’s sac fly scored Harlan, making it 6-5.

The Bird Dawgs added a key insurance run in the top of the ninth, scoring on an errant catcher’s pickoff throw at third base that put Washington down 7-5.

The Wild Things made it interesting in the bottom of the ninth. Lagrange hit a one-out double off the wall in left centerfield against former Wild Things reliever Jackson Hicks and scored when Cole Fowler tripled to the wall in right centerfield, making it 7-6.

With the potential tying run 90 feet from home plate with one out, and the Down East infield drawn in, Hicks was able to get pinch-hitter Tommy Caufield to bounce out to second base with Fowler holding at third base. In Washington’s 11-inning win Saturday night, Caufield hit a game-tying RBI single off Hicks in the ninth inning.

Hicks ended the game by getting Kyle Edwards on a ground out to third base.

That made the Wild Things television watchers for the next 90 minutes.