Windy City makes quick work of Wild Things
The Wild Things and Windy City ThunderBolts played their series finale Thursday night looking very much like two teams eager to get on the bus during getaway night.
Or maybe they wanted to hurry back to their respective clubhouses and catch Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final on television.
The Wild Things and ThunderBolts motored through the first 5½ innings of their series finale in only one hour, which had more to do with the solid starting pitching of Washington’s Luke Wilkins and Windy City’s Clay Chapman than anything else.
Windy City was finally able to slow the pace in the seventh inning, grind out some at-bats and find a way to win the series.
Chapman took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and Windy City’s Taylor Smart hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the seventh as the ThunderBolts edged the Wild Things, 3-2.
Chapman allowed only two hits in seven strong innings and relievers Joel Lima and Isaac Gil got the final six outs to end the game in a tad more than two hours, much to the delight of the hockey fans in the crowd.
The East Division-leading ThunderBolts improved their record to 17-7.
“It’s not like we’re tearing up the league,” Windy City manager Ron Biga said. “We’re getting base hits with two outs, our grabs have been very good, our catchers are throwing out 50 percent of opposing base stealers and our pitchers have been throwing strikes. We’re doing the things you need to have success.”
The Wild Things (11-12) have been doing many of those same things. The one exception is getting hits with two outs, and in most other situations.
Washington didn’t have a hit against Chapman (2-1) until the third time through the batting order. Center fielder Jamal Austin ended the no-hit bid by rolling a triple over the third-base bag with two outs in the sixth. He scored when Jimmy Yezzo followed with a single. That tied the score at 1-1.
It didn’t stay tied very long. Wilkins (0-1), who was making his second start of the season, issued two walks to begin the seventh. After a sacrifice bunt by Cody Keffer, Smart, the No. 9 hitter in the T-Bolts’ lineup, singled up the middle to score Corey Bass and Johnny Eirman and make the score 3-1.
“It has been a different guy coming through for us every night. Tonight, it was the No. 9 guy in the lineup,” Biga said.
Chapman also came through, giving up only two hits and two walks in seven innings. Lima pitched the eighth inning and Isaac Gil got his second save in as many nights, but not before the Wild Things made it interesting.
Washington left fielder Nick Ferdinand, who was signed earlier in the day, drew a two-out walk off Gil and scored when Logan Uxa doubled to the wall in right field. Gil, however, got Grant Fink to fly out deep to center field to end the game.
“We pitched great, the defense continues to be very good, but the offense just didn’t generate enough hits,” Washington manager Gregg Langbehn said. “We’re playing well, but right now Windy City is better than us a quarter of the way through the season.”
The difference in the teams is the hitting. Washington is last in the league in team batting average at .213, more than 50 points below the T-Bolts’ average.
“The thing that blows my mind – and this is no slight to any pitcher here – is the pitching is not major-league stuff,” Langbehn said. “We’re getting pitches to hit. We’ve been more aggressive the last two weeks. It’s just taking longer than we envisioned.”
Ferdinand was recently released by the York Revolution of the Atlantic League. York’s manager is former Wild Things manager Mark Mason. Ferdinand hit 11 home runs for York last year. … Lima pitched in all three games in the series. … Attendance was 1,130. … The Wild Things begin a three-game series at Lake Erie tonight. … Windy City makes two trips to Washington in a two-week span. The T-Bolts will return for a series next weekend.