Jun 4, 2016 4 min read

There was good news and bad news for the Wild Things during their game Saturday against the Evansville Otters.

First, the bad news.

One night after generating a season-high 11 hits, Washington’s offense was lulled into a deep slumber for seven innings by Evansville starting pitcher Max Duval and the Wild Things’ bullpen gave up seven runs. It added up to a 7-5 loss to the Otters before a crowd of 2,601 at Consol Energy Park.

The loss was the fourth in a row for Washington, which had its record fall below the .500 mark (9-10).

Now, the good news.

Starting pitcher Luke Wilkins, who led the Wild Things with eight wins last season, was activated from the disabled list prior to the game and made his first appearance since undergoing “new-school” elbow surgery last fall. All Wilkins, a right-hander from Sydney, Australia, did was throw five shutout innings and get a clean bill of health after his 72-pitch outing.

“I felt really good for the first time out,” Wilkins said. “I had to iron a few things out during the outings, but once I did that everything started clicking.”

Wilkins allowed only three singles, two by Evansville center fielder Chris Sweeney. Wilkins did issue three walks but did not allow Evansville to advance a runner past second base. He had four strikeouts.

“I’m definitely happy with the results,” Wilkins said. “I felt like I could have been a lot sharper, but when my stuff was good it was really good. Almost every time I got ahead 0-2 or 1-2 in the count, I got a strikeout.”

Wilkins suffered an his injury while playing in the Australian Baseball League last winter. The UCL ligament in his elbow pulled away from the bone but did not tear, which would have required “Tommy John” reconstructive surgery. Instead, Wilkins opted for a “new-school surgery.” A carbon fiber ligament was attached to Wilkins’ ligament and its was graphed back to the bone. The procedure was done Dec. 23 and by march he had started throwing again.

Wilkins threw an 85-pitch simulated game May 24 in Washington. He threw 72 pitches against Evansville.

“Hopefully, I can threw 85 to 90 pitches next time,” Wilkins said.

Wilkins left with a 1-0 lead. Washington right fielder David Popkins drew a leadoff walk in the second inning off Duval and scored when third baseman Ricky Rodriguez followed with a double to the gap in right centerfield.

That was Washington’s only hit off Duval, a former college first baseman, until the eighth inning. By then, the Wild Things had fallen behind 6-1. Four Washington relievers combined to give up seven runs in four innings.

Evansville took advantage of Wilkins’ exit by scoring four times in the sixth inning on only three hits. Brian O’Keefe (1-2) yielded two hits and two walks in the inning, and Sam Agnew-Wieland allowed a two-run single by Christoper Riopedre.

The Otters made it 5-1 in the seventh, scoring on two walks, a single and Sweeney’s sacrifice fly. Riopedre led off the eighth with a home run to left field that made the score 6-1 and Evansvilel added another run in the ninth.

Washington finally generated some offense in the bottom of the eighth and was helped along by consecutive hit batsmen. Jamal Austin had a sacrifice fly, Jimmy Yezzo drove in a run with a double and he scored on a sac fly by Rodriguez.

Duval gave up four hits and struck out nine in 7 1/3 innings. Sidearming lefty Ken Frosch worked out of a jam in the eighth and Randy McCurry got the final three outs for his sixth save. McCurry did give up a walk to Andrew Heck, who scored on a double off the right-field wall by Austin Wobrock.

In addition to activating Wilkins from the DL, Washington signed first baseman Logan Uxa (pronounced Ox), who played college ball at Arkansas State, was drafted in 2013 by Cincinnati and spent last year in Baltimore’s farm system. Uxa was in the starting lineup and went 0-for-4. The series finale is today (4:05 p.m.) and will be followed by a National ProFastpitch softball game between the Pennsylvania Rebellion and Scrap Yard Dawgs (8:05 p.m.). The Scrap Yard Dawgs recently made headlines by signing pitcher Monica Abbott, a former Olympian, to a contract that can be worth $1 million over six years. … Duval and Wild Things shortstop Austin Wobrock were teammates at the University of Hawaii.