Wild Things walk off with sweep of Windy City
Wild Things second baseman Matt Ford throws to first base in an attempt to turn a double play in the top of the third inning Thursday against Windy City.
The Wild Things’ Sam Mende gets a low-five from third base coach Andrew Davis after hitting a home run in the first inning Thursday.
Matt Ford thought he had hit a home run and given the Wild Things the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning Thursday night.
Then Ford thought he had won the game with a base hit over the first-base bag in the 10th inning.
It turned out that all the Washington second baseman had to do to win the game was stand in the batter’s box and not swing.
Ford drew a one-out bases-loaded walk off Windy City reliever Joel Lima to force home Austin Wobrock with the winning run in the 10th inning as the Wild Things defeated the ThunderBolts 6-5 to a complete a three-game series sweep at Consol Energy Park.
“That was anticlimactic, but we’ll take it,” said Ford, who is in his first season with the Wild Things and second year in professional baseball.
Ford thought he had broken a 5-5 tie in the eighth when he hit a towering drive to right field that sounded good coming off the bat. However, Ford got under the pitch and it settled into the glove of Windy City right fielder Max White at the edge of the warning track.
“Coming off the bat, I thought I did have a home run,” Ford admitted. “I saw the way the right fielder was going back and knew it was too high. I thought I hit it pretty well.”
In the 10th, Washington loaded the bases against Lima (3-4), the younger brother of former major league pitcher Jose Lima. Wobrock lined a one-out single to left field and Maxx Garrett drew a walk. A wild pitch advanced the runners and Andrew Heck was intentionally walked to loaded the bases.
Against a drawn-in infield, Ford hit a hard smash up the first-base line that appeared to be the game-winning hit, but home plate umpire Ron Whiting Sr. ruled that the ball was foul. Ford turned and looked in disbelief at the umpire.
“I thought it went over the bag,” Ford said. “But I guess he had a better view of it than I did.”
Moments later, Ford walked on a 3-2 pitch and Washington had its second home sweep of the year.
“That was a great at-bat by Matt Ford,” Wild Things manager Bob Bozzuto said. “He was very patient. He had some good swings and ended it by being patient. No if ands or buts, put it in the win column.”
The game featured 16 walks and 23 runners left on base, but it was the performance of Washington’s bullpen that brought some normalcy to a game that lasted more than 3 ½ hours.
Three Washington relievers – Kolin Stanley, Matt Purnell and Tim Giel (4-5) – combined for six scoreless innings, allowing only one hit and one walk with 11 strikeouts. Giel pitched the ninth and 10th innings for the win.
“Those guys in the bullpen have done a good job all year,” Ford said. “We were able to get our pitchers some runs early in games in this series and the relievers did their job.”
For the third consecutive game, Washington built a first-inning lead. Sam Mende hit a solo homer with two outs and David Popkins singled home Scott Kalamar to make it 2-0. Kalamar had reached base with a hit and stolen second base.
Washington starting pitcher Jon Klein, acquired Monday in a trade with Southern Illinois for Tim Flight, made his Wild Things debut and lasted only four innings. The PSAC West Division Pitcher of the Year this spring while leading Mercyhurst to the NCAA Division II World Series, Klein issued five walks (one intentional) and left with a 5-2 deficit.
The ThunderBolts tied the score with a two-run third inning, getting an RBI groundout by Ransom LaLonde and a run-scoring single by Jacob Tanis.
Two walks by Klein and an infield single loaded the bases for the ThunderBolts with two outs in the fourth, setting up a triple to deep right centerfield by White that gave Windy City a 5-2 lead.
Washington got one of the runs back in the third when White, the ThunderBolts’ right fielder, dropped Andrew Heck’s fly ball after making a long run. The error allowed Danny Poma to score
While Klein was having trouble getting ahead in the count, so too was Windy City pitcher Cameron Giannini, who was making only his second start of the season after 25 relief appearances. Giannini walked five in four innings but only one of the free passes came around to score. That was Kalamar, who walked to lead off the fifth. A double to the left-field corner by Popkins sent Kalamar to third base and Jimmy Yezzo followed with a two-run triple off the base of the wall in right centerfield, driving in two and making it a 5-5 score.
Washington begins a three-game weekend series tonight at home against the Gateway Grizzlies. One of the Grizzlies’ starting pitchers is Dillon Haviland (1-2, 5.59), a South Fayette High School and Duke University product. … The last game Gateway played at Consol Energy Park resulted in Washington pitcher Matt Sergey throwing the only perfect game in the Frontier League’s 23-year history. Sergey was traded by the Wild Things last week to Laredo of the American Association. … Flight started Southern Illinois’ game Thursday at River City. He gave up five runs in 5 1/3 innings.