Wild Things drop Game 3, pushed to brink of elimination
JOLIET, Ill. – It’s now or never for the Wild Things.
The Joliet Slammers pushed Washington to the brink of elimination in the Frontier League championship series Friday night by defeating the Wild Things, 5-3, in Game 3 at Joliet Route 66 Stadium.
Joliet leads the best of-5 series 2-1 with Game 4 set for 7:05 tonight. Washington is expected to start Dillon Sunnafrank (1-0, 1.14).
Game 5, if necessary, will be played Monday at Wild Things Park.
Joliet scored five runs in the third inning and held off a comeback by the Wild Things. Nate Antone and Isaac Sanchez combined for 4 1/3 innings of shutout relief for the Slammers.
Joliet scored five runs on four consecutive two-out hits in the bottom of the third inning to forge a 5-0 lead and knock Washington starting pitcher Michael Austin. That came on the heels of the second inning, when Joliet had runners on second and third with no outs but couldn’t score as Austin struck out two batters and got an inning-ending grounder back to the mound.
In the third, Brian Parreira, the No. 9 hitter in the Slammers’ lineup, had a leadoff single, L.J. Kalawaia drew a one-out walk and Justin Garcia gave Joliet a 1-0 lead with a two-out, two-strike single. After a wild pitch, Ridge Hoopi-Haslam hit a two-run single and stole second base. Trenton Hill drove in Hoopi-Haslam with a single and Chaz Meadows capped the big inning with a run-scoring double that made it 5-0.
Washington started a comeback in the fourth as Roman Collins reached base on an error and Carter McEachern made it 5-1 with an RBI double.
In the fifth, Ryan Cox led off with a double, James Harris singled and Collins reached on an infield single as Cox scored. Reydel Medina then hit a run-scoring double that cut Joliet’s lead to 5-3 and knocked out Joliet starter Liam O’Sullivan.
Antone, who started game 4 of Joliet’s first-round series against River City and threw 7 1/3 no-hit innings, was brought in and got the final out of the fifth inning.
James Meeker threw three scoreless innings of relief for Washington. Jake Eaton and Jesus Balaguer followed and combined for 2 1/3 shutout innings.
Washington was held to seven hits and no player had more than one.