Foster pitches shutout as Wild Things win, 10-0
The Wild Things are a Frontier League anomaly. In a league that is blowing up scoreboards with high-scoring games on a nightly basis, the Wild Things have been winning with pitching. Very good pitching.
Washington entered Friday night leading the 18-team league in pitching with an ERA more than one run lower than the second-best pitching team.
That difference grew after another spectacular outing by starting pitcher Kobe Foster.
The lefty, who is Washington’s all-time wins leader, tossed a complete-game shutout as the Wild Things whitewashed the Florence Y’alls 10-0 Friday night before a sellout crowd of 3,243 at EQT Park.
Foster (4-0) was in control from start to finish. He took a no-hitter into the fifth inning, settled for a three-hitter and issued only one walk. He struck out eight and needed only 102 pitches to finish the complete game, his first of the season.
Foster’s ERA dropped to 0.78.
During his spectacular start to the season, Foster has made pitching and winning look easy.
“That wasn’t always the case,” Washington manager Tom Vaeth said. “His first year here (2022), in a playoff game against Schaumburg, he didn’t get out of the second inning. But Kobe has learned over the years. He knows when to add this, when to subtract that. You don’t have to have plus stuff across the board. You have to know how to pitch with your stuff and be successful.”
Florence had only one runner reach scoring position – Brett Blomquist, who advanced to second base in the fifth. Blomquist had two of Florence’s three hits.
Blomquist had a clean single up the middle to start the fifth and moved to second on Milo Rushford’s one-out shattered bat single. Foster, however, picked Rushford off first base for the inning’s second out, ending the Y’alls’ only chance to threaten to score.
“Kobe is a pro in the sense that he goes out and does his job,” Vaeth said. “An example of that was the back-pick at first base. He’s thinking that if I can do that and get an out, then it will make things easier for him.”
Florence desperately needed a good start from pitcher Jonaiker Villalobos (1-2) after it defeated Windy City 20-19 Thursday night.
The Wild Things gave Foster the only runs he would need four batters into the bottom of the first inning that ended with Washington leading 4-0.
Villalobos hit Wild Things leadoff batter E.J. Cumbo with his first pitch of the game. Connor Peek followed with a single and Antonio Munroy beat out an infield bouncer to load the bases.
Andrew Czech then laced a 3-2 pitch into the gap in left centerfield, clearing the bases and giving Washington a 3-0 lead. Czech would score the fourth run of the inning when Kyle Edwards reached on an infield hit and the throw to first base was errant.
In the second, Peek walked, stole second base and scored on a single by Munroy.
Villalobos settled down after the shaky first inning and pitched into the sixth. That’s when Washington took advantage of three walks and a wild pitch to make it 6-0.
Cole Fowler added a run-scoring double in the seventh, and Washington scored three times in the seventh to reach double-digit runs. Munroy had another RBI single and Caleb Ketchup added a sacrifice fly.