Jul 19, 2015 4 min read

Maybe the Wild Things should see about playing the rest of the season on the road. Playing at home – particularly on Sunday afternoon – is doing them no favors.

And the Frontier League’s new International Tiebreaker rule isn’t helping, either.

Washington had its offense fall into a deep slumber over the final eight innings Sunday, and Normal scored the tying run in the top of the ninth before defeating the Wild Things 5-4 in 11 innings.

Closing the season’s first half by winning four of six games on the road, the Wild Things were thinking highly of their chances to get back into the wild-card playoff race. After losing two of three to the CornBelters, who began the day one game out of first place in the West Division, the Wild Things are left fighting to stay out of the East’s basement and looking for answers.

The prime question is this – what will it take to win at home? Washington is 15-12 on the road but only 9-18 at Consol Energy Park. The Wild Things have lost six of their seven Sunday home games and are 0-3 (all at home) when playing the International Tiebreaker, which requires each half-inning after the 10th to begin with a runner on second base and no outs.

Until the Wild Things can do something about those three statistics, their push for relevance in the East will have to wait.

“I was looking at our results this morning and our record could easily be 10 games over .500,” said Washington manager Bob Bozzuto, who was quick to point out 14 of his team’s 30 losses have been by one run.

Perhaps the Wild Things could get some tips from Normal. The CornBelters are 3-0 in tiebreaker games.

“And we’ve won all three as the visiting team, which makes it even more difficult to win,” Normal manager Brooks Carey pointed out. “In the other games, we didn’t put down a bunt and scored four runs in the top of the 11th inning.

“The International Tiebreaker might be the best rule this league has ever come up with. It’s a good idea, and I’m not saying that because we’re 3-0. I’m saying that because we’ve had games go 16 or 17 innings and arms at this age don’t hold up very well.”

This time, the CornBelters didn’t bunt again in the 11th and scored one run, which was enough to win.

With Aaron Dudley beginning the 11th on second base, Normal’s Richard Lucas worked his at-bat to an 11th pitch against Washington reliever Tim Giel (2-5) before hitting a double to right-centerfield that gave the CornBelters the 5-4 lead.

Washington began the bottom of the 11th with David Popkins at second base but he was stranded there after a strikeout and two groundouts.

The Wild Things did all their scoring in the third inning, when they were aided by two errors on the same play by shortstop Pat McKenna, which led to three unearned runs. Sam Mende (3-for-5) had a run-scoring single and Popkins tied the score at 2-2 with an RBI-groundout. C.J. Beatty followed with a two-run homer to right field off Normal starter Bubba Baroniel to stake Washington to a 4-2 lead.

Wild Things starter Tim Flight gave up two runs in the top of the first inning, when he walked three of the game’s first five batters. But Flight was very good the rest of the day, pitching 6 1/3 innings and leaving with a 4-3 lead.

Normal scored in the top of the ninth against reliever Jonathan Kountis, the winning pitcher in the Wild Things’ 2-1 victory Saturday night. Pinch-hitter Jason Menjano smacked a leadoff double to the left-field corner and came around to score on two fly balls, the latter a sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter Aaron Wright.

CornBelters closer Race Parmenter (1-1) pitched the final three innings for the win.

“To win two out three games here, I’m happy as I can be,” Carey said. “It was frustrating losing Saturday because we left a small village on base but we got it done today.”

Washington didn’t get the job done, in large part because it generated only four hits over the final eight innings and had a runner picked off third base by Normal catcher Jim Vahalik.

“We shouldn’t have been in the (tiebreaker) but that’s baseball,” Bozzuto said. “Any time you’re up 4-2 against a team like Normal, you have to add on. I wasn’t comfortable with it. At 4-3 in the ninth, you’re hoping.”