Jun 6, 2015 4 min read

Consol Energy Park should be a cheery, comforting place for the Washington Wild Things to play their baseball games in the Frontier League.

Instead, it has been a place where wins and hits have been hard to come by early in the season.

Maybe that’s about to change.

Washington erupted for nine runs over the first two innings, smashed four home runs in the game, and cruised to an 11-0 victory over the Traverse City Beach Bums in front of 2,150 fans Saturday night.

The four home runs were the most hit by Washington in a home game this season and the 11 runs were a season high. The win also snapped a three-game losing streak by Washington.

“Nothing is given to you in this league,” said Washington manager Bob Bozzuto. “You have to earn it and I think these guys made a statement to themselves that they are capable of doing this. Baseball is one day at a time. You lose 7-0 one day, then everyone is hitting the ball and you get great pitching.”

The Wild Things, who entered the game hitting under .200 in eight home games that produced just two wins, scored four runs in the first inning and five in the second. Traverse City starter Alex Phillips was knocked out of the game before he got an out in the second inning. Even the outs off Phillips in the first were impressive as three fly balls had to be run down on the warning track.

“It was an important win for the fans,” Bozzuto said. “We won six of nine on the road then we had three tough losses.”

Right-handed starter Ernesto Zaragoza benefitted from Washington’s early outburst. In his second start of the season, Zaragoza entered the game with a 5.40 ERA but throttled a Traverse City team that had outscored opponents 17-2 in the first inning and put up four against Washington in the first inning of Friday night’s 7-0 victory. Traverse City had not been shut out since last August against Florence.

“I wanted to keep the ball down,” said Zaragoza (2-0), whose last complete game was a 150-pitch win for the Roswell Invaders over the Alpine Cowboys in the Pecos League. “The last time out, I got roughed up in the first inning. I was a little nervous out there in the beginning but then I felt comfortable after getting all those runs.”

Zaragoza 108 pitches, 74 for strikes, struck out eight, walked one and gave up only five hits.

“He’s been working on a two-seamer,” Bozzuto said. “He threw it a little more, along with his change. You saw that he was comfortable. It was big because he threw (those pitches) for strikes.”

Valdez said he has never hit two home runs in a game, even in the youth leagues he played in.

“I hit a fastball down the middle on the first one,” he said. “The second one was over the plate and a little in. I knew both were gone as soon as I hit them.”

Centerfielder Danny Poma, who missed the past three games because of a broken nose, ignited the four-run first inning with a solid single to right and came around to score on a single by third baseman Carter Bell. First baseman Lee Orr had the big hit in the inning, a two-run home run over the left-field fence that brought in Bell and made it 4-0. It was Orr’s fourth home run of the season and it careened off the scoreboard. Right-fielder David Popkins also scored in the inning on an error.

Valdez led off the second with a home run over the left field fence to make it 5-0 before catcher John Fidanza was hit by a pitch. Poma doubled Fidanza to third and he came home on a single by Popkins. Poma scored when Bell sent a grounder right between the legs of Traverse City shortstop Sam Bumpers for an error. Left-fielder C.J. Beatty drove in two runs, making it 9-0, on a double to left-center field.

Popkins led off the sixth with his seventh home run of the season and Washington’s 17th of the year.