Wild Things dealt quick exit from playoffs
And so it ends.
The Wild Things had a late-season charge that netted them the Frontier League’s Central Division title but their stay in the postseason lasted only three days, a mere two games and 18 innings.
Lukas Veinbergs struck out a career-high 10, D.J. Stewart and Dale Thomas hit home runs and the Gateway Grizzlies defeated Washington 9-4 Friday night to complete a two-game sweep in the best-of-3 wild-card playoff series.
Gateway advances to play either Schaumburg or Lake Erie in the Midwest Conference finals. When that series will start is unknown because Gateway and Schaumburg have their ballparks booked with other events next weekend.
It was the first playoff series win for Gateway since 2003, when the Grizzlies won the league championship.
“This was a big win for the organization,” Gateway manager Steve Brook said.
Washington ends its season with a 10th division title but is still chasing its elusive first Frontier League championship.
Washington lost Game 1 in Sauget, Ill., 6-5, on Wednesday and the contest ended with the potential tying run on second base. Game 2 wasn’t that close. The Wild Things scored three of their runs in the bottom of the ninth.
There was no more late-inning magic. No more clutch hitting. No more hitting, period.
“They were the better team than us for two days,” Washington manager Tom Vaeth said. “They did the things that are needed to win, so congratulations to them.”
Washington didn’t score until a leadoff home run by Pavin Parks in the seventh inning that cut Gateway’s lead to 6-1. Parks did not start the game. He came on in the fifth, a half-inning after second baseman Cole Fowler was hit in the knee by a pitch.
Veinbergs improved to 4-1 all-time at EQT Park. He pitched seven innings and gave up only three hits. The righthander walked two.
“Veinbergs showed up,” Brook said. “That was a gutsy performance by him. He worked back in counts when he fell behind. He threw a slot of sliders for strikes. The slider had a lot of downward action.”
“He was on it tonight,” Vaeth added.
Washington had only one runner reach scoring position until Parks’ home run.
Gateway jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third inning. It was the first time this year – eight games – that the Grizzlies scored first against the Wild Things.
Mark Shallenberger and Edwin Mateo started the third with singles, and after a fielder’s choice on a sacrifice bunt by Cole Brannen retired Shallenberger at third base, Thomas hit a grounder up the middle that should have been fielded but slipped between the Washington middle infielders for an RBI single.
Gabe Holt followed with a shallow fly ball that was caught by center fielder Ben Watson. The speedy Brannen, who was on third base, challenged Watson’s arm by tagging and beat the throw to home plate to make it 2-0.
The Grizzlies, who scored only three runs while being swept in three games during the regular season at EQT Park, made it a 3-0 score when Stewart, the cleanup hitter, belted an opposite-field home run to start the fourth inning against Washington starter Kobe Foster.
Thomas added a solo home run with two outs in the fifth that extended Gateway’s lead to 4-0.
“We had a lot of two-out hits in the series,” Brook noted.
Foster went five innings, allowing six hits and four runs.
It didn’t get any better in the sixth inning for Washington as Gateway pushed across two runs against reliever Regi Grace. Shallenberger had an RBI single and Mateo drove in a run with a groundout that made it 6-0.
Gateway scored three times in the eighth, two on a bloop single by Holt, to push its lead to 9-1.
Washington scored three times in the bottom of the ninth against reliever Matt Hickey. Eddie Hacopian had a run-scoring double, Three Hiller followed with an RBI groundout and Ben Watson hit a sacrifice fly.
Extra bases
The game was delayed by rain for 15 minutes in the sixth inning and had most of the crowd of 2,586 heading for the exits. … It was only the second time in 16 games at EQT Park with Brook as their manager that the Grizzlies scored more than four runs. … Washington’s Chad Coles pitched 1 1/3 innings of relief and returned all four batters he faced. Jordan DiValerio, who was scheduled to be Washington’s starter in Game 3, pitched the ninth and retired all three batters he faced.