Stegura, bullpen help Wild Things stay alive, force Game 4
You can make an iron-clad case that the most important start made by a Washington pitcher during the regular season was by Drew Stegura on Aug. 20 against Evansville.
The Otters had trimmed what was once an eight-game lead for the Wild Things in the Central Division to a mere two games before Stegura stepped onto the mound at EQT Park and fired seven shutout innings in a 4-0 Washington win that put the Wild Things back on track for the division title.
When Stegura returned to the mound in a starting role Friday, the stakes were even higher. After losing the first two games of their best-of-5 Midwest Conference finals series against Evansville, the Wild Things were in a must-win situation.
Again, Stegura delivered.
The rookie righthander allowed one run over six innings, and this time the Wild Things’ bullpen did its job in a 4-1 victory.
Game 4 will be played at 7:05 p.m. tonight with Zach Kirby pitching for Washington. Evansville has not announced its starting pitcher. Game 5, if necessary, would be 4:05 p.m. Sunday.
The winner of the series will play Ottawa in the Frontier League finals. The Titans completed an Atlantic Conference series sweep of New York, beating the Boulders, 3-2.
Stegura, a rookie out of Belmont Abbey, an NCAA Division II school in North Carolina, scattered five hits in his first playoff start as a professional. He walked three and struck out two.
Stegura had not made a start since Aug. 27. His only outing since then was in relief when he faced five batters in the regular-season finale Sept. 6.
“That was tough to do,” Stegura admitted. “I have been throwing for eight months, so I just went back to working on the simple things.”
Most pitchers who defeated a team a month earlier might be tempted to change the game plan and show the opposing hitters something different. Stegura, however, stuck to almost the same plan this time and attacked the Otters with fastballs.
“I threw exactly the same way I did in the last outing against Evansville,” Stegura said. “I knew what I wanted to do and how to get the results. I kept pounding the strike zone with fastballs. I knew that if I did that, then I could get outs. In this outing, I probably threw the least amount of offspeed pitches I ever have.”
Just as it did in Game 2, Washington scored first. Miles Simington hit a one-out fly ball into the left-field corner that bounced over the outfield wall for a book-rule double in the third inning. He moved to third base on a passed ball and scored when Kyle Edwards hit a sacrifice fly to left field. The fly ball was shallow but Simington challenged Castillo’s arm and the throw to home plate was up the third-base line, allowing Simington to dive head-first across home plate.
The Wild Things added two runs in the fourth against Evansville starter Colby Morse, a rookie out of Indiana State who had a 6-0 record in the regular season. Andrew Czech walked to start the fourth and Anthony Brocato followed with a single to right field. The duo was bunted up by Cole Fowler and Caleb Ketchup hit a 3-2 pitch for an RBI single. Brocato scored when Antonio Monroy grounded out to first base.
Washington made it 4-0 in the fifth as Simington singled, Kyle Edwards walked and Jeff Liquori doubled to right field.
Evansville’s only run scored in the sixth when Amani Jones doubled and came around after singles by Blake Robertson and Castillo.
Stegura ended the inning by getting Zac Vooletich to bounce back to the mound, triggering an inning-ending double play.
“He’s a guy who has pitched in big games before,” Washington manager Tom Vaeth said of Stegura. “In college he was the guy who would throw 135 pitches on Friday night, in the conference tournament. There are always some jitters and butterflies, especially when you’re making your first playoff start as a pro, but I never felt the game got too big for him.”
Michael O’Hanlon replaced Stegura and matched his performance in Game 2 by throwing 2⅓ scoreless innings of relief. Only one Evansville batter reached base against O’Hanlon. Jon Ponder drew a walk in the eighth inning but was thrown out trying to steal.
Vaeth opened himself to some second-guessing when he removed O’Hanlon with one out in the ninth, after he struck out Robertson, the Otters’ cleanup hitter.
“O’Hanlon is probably our best reliever against left-handed hitters,” Vaeth said. “I wanted him to face Robertson. He did his job. I never had the intention for him to pitch the remainder of the game.”
Closer Landon Ginn replaced O’Hanlon and gave up a double and a single, but Sam Linscott fouled out and Mark Black ended the game with a groundout.
“It was a good job by the boys,” Vaeth said.
Extra bases
Ottawa drew a Frontier League playoff record 7,912 for Game 3 against New York. The independent league playoff record is 8,131 at Somerset in the Atlantic League in 2017.