Home runs, Foster’s pitching lead Wild Things to win
It makes no sense to draw conclusions about a professional baseball team after about a week’s worth of games, especially with another 94 remaining over the course of the next four months.
If, however, one was to make a quick assessment of the current edition of the Wild Things, you’d think they were a group of Popeyes who specialize in hitting balls over walls. That would be a change from the franchise’s winning formula of relying on pitching and defense.
Washington continued its home run barrage to start the Frontier League season on Friday night in a 6-3 victory over the Schaumburg Boomers in the home opener before a sellout crowd of 3,226 at EQT Park.
Andrew Czech, Kyle Edwards and Jeff Liquori each homered to give Washington (5-3) a total of 24 home runs in its first eight games. The Wild Things are currently on pace to hit 306 home runs. The league record is 193. The Wild Things’ single-season record is 128. That shows how much a week’s worth of statistics can be out of whack.
What one can make a solid assessment of is the pitching of Washington’s Kobe Foster. The lefthander, who is the Wild Things’ all-time leader in wins, is in midseason form. That was on display against Schaumburg.
Foster (2-0) breezed through seven shutout innings, allowing only three hits. He struck out six and did not issue a walk.
“That was vintage Kobe,” Washington manager Tom Vaeth said. “Kobe tonight was able to execute all four of his pitches. He did a really good job.”
Foster retired the first 10 Schaumburg batters until Christian Fedko singled with one out in the fourth. The Boomers never put two runners on base in the same innings against Foster. He left the game with a 2-0 lead.
Czech made it 1-0 in the fourth inning when he hit a solo home run over the video board in right field off Schaumburg starter Derek Salata (1-1), who struck out seven in six innings.
In the sixth, Washington’s Graham Brown hit a fly ball that Boomers center fielder Myles Beale lost in the twilight and it fell for a double. Czech followed with an RBI double to the gap in left centerfield for a 2-0 lead.
In the seventh, Anthony Brocato led off with a double down the left-field line and Cole Fowler bunted him to third base. Kyle Edwards then worked deep into the count before lofting his second professional home run, a shot to right field that gave the Wild Things a 4-0 lead.
“We had some timely hitting,” Vaeth said. “Czech set the tone with his double, and I really liked the execution of Kyle’s approach.”
Chad Coles followed with a scoreless inning that included three strikeouts in relief of Foster. The Wild Things then pushed the lead to 6-0 on Liquori’s two-run homer into the parking lot beyond right field that scored Brown, who had walked. It was Liquori’s league-leading sixth home run. He had only nine home runs all last season.
“I’m not going up there thinking about (home runs),” said Liquori, who is in his second season as Washington’s right fielder
“I’ve been blessed to hit home runs but that’s not my goal up there. It’s just to hit the ball hard. I did a lot of fastball training in the offseason because my first year I was getting blown up and beat. I didn’t want that to happen this year.”
Schaumburg avoided the shutout by scoring three times in the ninth against reliever Landon Ginn. The rally started with a one-out walk to Fedko, who reached base three times. Alec Craig singled, and Kellum Clark and Myles Beale followed with run-scoring hits.
Extra bases
Washington is 13-11 in home openers and has won five of its last six. … Schaumburg (5-2) has 14 players back from last year’s team that advanced to the league championship series. The Boomers have 23 players on the active roster, two under the league maximum. … The series continues with games Saturday (7:05 p.m.) and Sunday (4:05 p.m.). The Sunday start time is new this year.