Wild Things Season Ends in the Rain

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The Washington Wild Things have been eliminated from the playoffs in the Wild Card round. The Wild Things won the Central Division for the second consecutive year and hosted the Gateway Grizzlies. The lost game one to the Grizzlies 6-5 and dropped game two this Friday, 9-4. The Grizzlies will move on to the Midwest Conference Finals to face the Schaumburg Boomers. The Boomers won the Frontier League West division and eliminated the Lake Erie Crushers in the Wild Card Round.

The Wild Things wrapped up the season 54-42 just ahead of the Crushers, who finished at 52-42. This marked the organization’s tenth Frontier League division championship.

In Game 1 versus Gateway, the game remained close throughout; however, the Grizzlies came away with the win, 6-5. Down 1-0, the Wild Things must win out if they wish to return to the Frontier League Championship as they did last season.

In game two, a crowd of 2500 roared with their terrible towels in hand for starting pitcher Kobe Foster. Foster started strong, clearing the side in the first two innings, notching two K’s. However, Gateway’s Lukas Veinbergs saw the mound well, only allowing a Wagner LaGrange single after two.

Steve Brook is confronting the third base umpire.

In the third, the brakes began to fall off as Foster gave up two straight singles. The first to Mark Shallenberger and the second to Edwin Mateo. Gateway’s manager, Steve Brook, stormed onto the field after the next play. Cole Brannen singled, and a close call at third called Shallenberger out. Brook came out and went face-to-face with the umpire. However, he ultimately retreated to the dugout and accepted the call.

Brook wasn’t down for long, as during the next at-bat, Dale Thomas drove in the first run of the game, hitting the ball right past the shortstop’s glove. Afterwards, Gabe Holt added a sac-fly to make the game 2-0.

The Wild Things had a short bottom of the third when, at the top of the fourth, Gateway’s DJ Stewart sent one right over the fence in right field, barely over the glove of Jeff Liquori. Fortunately, Foster was able to compose himself and retire the sides. In the bottom of the fourth, Washington was able to put players in scoring position. A walk for Andrew Czech was followed by a scary hit by pitch on Cam Fowler. Fortunately, Fowler was able to walk himself on base. He was later substituted for Pavin Parks on second. However, they left both men on base as Veinberg recorded the final out.

In the fifth, Foster gave up another solo shot, this time to Thomas. A 1,2,3 inning for the Wild Things marked that the Grizzlies were back up

at the plate. In the sixth, relief Regi Grace came in for Foster and hit his first batter. Matters got worse as after a single, Schallenberger drove in a run. Mateo followed, putting in a second consecutive run. Grace’s performance was cut short as he walked two more batters and was swapped out in favor of Chad Coles. However, this is when the rain began to pour, and while he was able to record the final out of the inning, the game was delayed.

Once the game resumed, the Wild Things were finally able to get on the scoreboard. Parks had a leadoff homerun in

The bottom of the 7th. However, we were not able to add anything else. In the 8th, Washington swapped Coles for Andrew Herbert, which ended up backfiring as Herbert gave up three runs in the 8th.

Veinbergs’ night ended as he was switched out in the 8th for Francis Peguero. Who was able to retire the side? On the other hand, Herbert was replaced by Jordan DiValerio, who got three straight putouts. This gave the Wild Things one final chance to stay alive. Pegeuro was called in for Matt Hickey. Hickey walked Parks, who advanced to second off a Kyle Edwards single. Parks scored with an Eddie Hacopian double. Edwards and Hacopian reached home on a Three Hillier putout and a Ben Watson sac-fly. Unfortunately for the Things, Alec Whaley came in for Hickey and closed the game with a Gateway 9-4 victory.

With this victory, the Frontier League Conference Finals. In the Midwest Conference, Gateway faces off with the Schaumburg Boomers. In the Atlantic Conference, the Tri-City Valley Cats face the Quebec Capitales. The Valley Cats swept the Sussex County Miners, while the defending champion Quebec swept the New York Boulders. Quebec is looking for its fourth straight championship, which their race will continue on Tuesday, September 9th. To keep up with the Frontier League postseason, visit frontierleague.com.

About Post Author

Zachary Worstell

A Marietta College Student with three years of journalism experience writing for Marietta's Marcolian Online Newspaper. He was promoted to Editor in Chief of the Marcolian in 2023. A Pittsburgh native, he covers sports from the Pittsburgh region as well as Ohio and West Virginia.

zach102803@gmail.com

https://ngscsports.com/