Sep 5, 2013 4 min read

The sands that had been trickling through the hourglass on the Wild Things’ season ran out Thursday night and finality set in.

And on the last night of the regular season, the Wild Things managed to do what no other team had done in the last three months.

They were swept by the Greys, the Frontier League’s traveling team.

Mark Micowski hit his second home run in as many nights, and Cole Stephens pitched seven shutout innings, as the Greys defeated the Wild Things, 6-3, and swept the season-ending three-game series.

It was only the second series sweep of the season for the Greys (33-62) and the first since winning three games at Windy City May 27-29. It also was the Greys’ first series win in more than a month.

“We caught three or four breaks tonight on line drives and high hoppers. It took 95 games, but the breaks finally turned in our favor,” Greys manager Brent Metheny said.

The loss left the Wild Things with a 41-55 record. They will take a seven-game losing streak to take into the 2014 season. The 41 wins is the third-lowest total in the franchise’s 12-year history and a three-win drop from last season.

“Without a doubt, we were a better team than last year,” Washington first baseman Mark Samuelson said. “We were in more games to the end. We had about 30 losses by two runs or less. In too many close games, though, things just didn’t work out our way for whatever reasons.”

Stephens (1-1), who was acquired by the Greys late in the Frontier League season after pitching Fort Worth to the independent United League championship series, gave up five hits and did not walk a batter. He struck out six.

The Greys took a 2-0 lead in the second inning against Washington starter Shawn Blackwell (4-10) on consecutive singles by Blake Bergeron, J.J. Muse and West Virginia University product Justin McDavid along with a sacrifice fly by Ryan Kiesel.

The Greys batted around in the fourth, when they scored three runs. Micowski led off the inning with his second home run in as many nights. Each homer was an opposite-field shot. Following a flyout, Muse walked, McDavid rolled a single up the middle and Kiesel hit a Baltimore chop for an infield single that loaded the bases.

That was all for Blackwell, who was replaced by Andy Smithmyer. The Altoona native walked Michael Allen, the Greys’ No. 9 hitter, to force in a run. Mike Bolling was then hit in the foot with a pitch to bring home McDavid and make the score 5-0.

The Greys pushed the lead to 6-0 in the sixth as McDavid was hit by a pitch from Smithmyer and scored when Allen doubled off the wall in left centerfield.

“It’s hard not to say that our morale was down before this series,” Metheny said. “To end the year like this, with a sweep, lifts everyone’s spirits and gets them thinking about next year.”

The Wild Things finally scored, against reliever Ryan Berry, in the eight and did so without the benefit of a hit. Matt Mirabal drew a leadoff walk and Scott Kalmar reached when his fly ball was dropped by Micowski in left field for an error. A.J. Nunziato then hit a sharp line drive that was snagged by diving third baseman Blake Bergeron, who tried to double Kalamar off first base. Bergeron’s throw was errant and rolled down the right-field line as Mirabal scored and Kalamar went to third base. Kalmar later scored on a passed ball.

Washington outfielder Quincy Latimore pitched for the first time in his 763-game professional career when he started the top of the ninth and faced one batter. Latimore got Allen to ground out to third base.

“Got the fastball up to 72 mph,” Latimore said with a smile. “All I wanted to do was hit 70.”

Washington closed the scoring in the ninth when rookie right fielder Stewart Ijames hit his league-leading 29th double and scored on two groundouts. Ijames went 3-for-4 and finished the year with a .297 batting average.

Attendance was 1,802. For the season, the Wild Things drew 87,076 fans for 51 home dates, an average of 1,707 per game. It was the sixth consecutive year that the per-game attendance has dropped, though this year it was by only 34 fans. … Washington finished second in the league with 84 home runs but next-to-last in runs scored (406).