Wild Things’ longest night ends with loss in sudden death
The Wild Things and Windy City played a series finale Thursday night at EQT Park, and for the record the ThunderBolts won in the Frontier League’s quirky sudden death inning.
It was easily the toughest loss of the season for the Wild Things, who had a three-run lead in the middle innings, gave it up late and then failed to score in both the tiebreaker inning (the 10th) and the sudden death frame (the 11th).
Sometimes, however, the final score of a baseball game is just a side note. The main story is what the teams and a few hearty fans endured to get to the finish. That was the case with this game.
The final out wasn’t recorded until 1:22 a.m., by far the latest any Wild Things home game has ended in the franchise’s 24-season history and almost 6½ hours after the scheduled start time.
The start of the game was delayed 1 hour and 29 minutes because of rain.
Play was stopped after only two batters because the rain returned. This delay lasted 32 minutes.
They managed to play through the first inning, but before the second could get underway, heavy rain fell again and the players were summoned off the field. This time, the rain caused a 33-minute delay.
When the rain stopped, Washington starting pitcher Zander Sechrist returned to the mound and warmed up for the fourth time on the night. He eventually exited the game in the top of the second with an injury and Windy City holding a 2-0 lead.
Kelvin Perez replaced Sechrist and was fabulous over 4 1/3 innings, his longest outing of the season. He left with a 5-3 lead. By this time, there were only about 40 dedicated fans remaining in the ballpark from the paid attendance of 1,282.
The Frontier League has a midnight local time curfew, meaning that no inning can be started after that point. The league waived that rule for this game because it was the final scheduled meeting this season between the Wild Things and ThunderBolts. Had the curfew been in play, Washington would have won, 5-3, when the clock struck midnight.
Windy City, however, tied it at 5-5 by pushing across a run on an RBI double by Carlos Pena off reliever Michael Foltz Jr. in the eighth inning and getting a tying single by Josue Urdaneta, the T-Bolts’ No. 9 hitter, in the eighth off Landon Ginn.
The 10th inning began at 12:55 a.m.
Both teams failed to score the tiebreaker runner in the 10th. The T-Bolts had runners on first and third with no outs but Ginn worked out of the jam with two strikeouts and a groundout. Washington couldn’t get a bunt down in the 10th and failed to score, forcing the sudden death inning. Urdaneta, Windy City’s second baseman, made a fantastic over-the-shoulder catch in right centerfield to rob Antonio Monroy of a game-winning hit, ending the 10th and saving the game for the ThunderBolts.
Washington chose to bat in the 11th, which began with Monroy on first base. Again the Wild Things couldn’t put down a bunt and Monroy was still on first base with two outs. Hunter Stokley, who entered the game in the 10th inning, drew a four-pitch walk to put Monroy in scoring position, but Jeff Liquori, who had a three-run double in the second inning, flied out to center field to end the game and give Windy City the victory by the odd final score of 5-5.
It was the second sudden-death loss for Washington this week. They lost at Lake Erie in similar fashion on Sunday.
Carter Delaney (6-0) was the winning pitcher with three scoreless innings of relief. Windy City is 4-0 in extra innings and 2-0 in sudden death games.
Washington did not score after the fourth inning when Isaias Quiroz hit a solo home run. The Wild Things stranded seven baserunners in scoring position over the final seven innings.