Jul 26, 2017 5 min read

The sight of Wild Things Park seems to bring out the worst in Washington’s hitters.

The Wild Things, after raising their team batting average 11 points during a seven-game road trip to Southern Illinois and Evansville that concluded Sunday, returned home for a doubleheader Wednesday night against the Normal CornBelters and the Washington offense was missing in action.

Normal made the most of only two hits to beat Washington in the opener, 1-0, and then belted three home runs in the nightcap for an 11-4 victory that completed a sweep.

The Wild Things were held to only seven hits in the doubleheader. Their first runs of the night didn’t come until the fourth inning of the nightcap and came via an unlikely source, a three-run homer by catcher John Fidanza. It was Fidanza’s first professional home run and came on his 25th birthday.

Washington is hitting .264 in 30 road games but only .232 in 32 home contests.

Wild Things manager Gregg Langbehn doesn’t even try to explain why his team struggles to hit at home.

“It’s mind-boggling why we can’t hit at home,” he said to nobody in particular while filling out his lineup card between games.

“We can hit on the road but we can’t hit at home. It has been that way for over a month,” he added after the second game. “No hitting, bad pitching in the second game, bad baserunning. We didn’t deserve to win either game.

“It was poor baseball all the way around. The first game, the pitching was fine but we didn’t hit again.”

Normal scored the lone run of the opening game in the first inning against Washington starter Trevor Foss (8-4). Foss, who usually has pinpoint control, started the game by throwing eight consecutive balls, walking both Diego Cedeno and Santiago Chirino.

Foss’ ninth pitch was a called strike and was greeted by a sarcastic cheer from the crowd of 1,398. Foss had a difficutl time holding back a smile and then made a quick tip of his cap to the crowd. Foss then induced a grounball double play by Aaron Dudley, but Nolan Meadows put a single through the right side of the infield to score Cedeno from third base with the game’s only run.

Normal starting pitcher Edgar De La Rosa (2-3) and reliever Shawn Blackwell, who pitched two years (2013-14) for Washington, combined on the three-hit shutout. De La Rosa gave up three singles – two to leadoff hitter James Harris – and four walks over six innings. Blackwell pitched the seventh inning for his 11th save.

Washington left seven runners on base and were hitless in four at-bats with runners in scoring position.

After his two walks to begin the game, Foss was terrific. He allowed only two hits and three walks while throwing his team-record 12th complete game over two seasons in Washington.

The Wild Things had several good opportunities to get Foss off the hook. In the fourth, Washington had Bralin Jackson at third base and Mike Hill at first with one out but a strikeout ended the threat. In the next inning, Justin Bohn drew a one-out walk and moved to second on a Harris’ second single but consecutive popouts got De La Rosa out of the jam.

Washington fell behind 7-0 in the nightcap as Normal knocked out starter Brian O’Keefe (3-5) after three innings. The CornBelters scored four times on only three hits in the second inning. In the third, Nolan Meadows hit a solo home run and catcher Brian Hakes hit a two-run shot that made it 7-0. Hakes, a rookie out of Indiana Tech, was 3-for-4 with three RBI.

Fidanza’s long home run to left field and Jackson’s shattered-bat triple that scored Kane Sweeney in the fifth cut Normal’s lead to 7-4.

The CornBelters secured the win with two unearned runs in the sixth off reliever Joe Ravert and a two-run homer by Aaron Dudley in the seventh. Normal overcame a wild start by pitcher Sixto Torres, who walked seven batters in 3 1/3 innings but didn’t allow a run until Fidanza’s homer.

Reliever Chad Gendron (2-1) was the winning pitcher, allowing one run in 1 2/3 innings.

On Tuesday, the Wild Things claimed relief pitcher Ethan Gibbons off waivers. Gibbons is in his third season in the Frontier league and played for the West Division in this year’s all-star game. Gibbons had a 5-4 record and 6.51 ERA for the Southern Illinois Miners before being waived. He pitched in 15 games, including nine starts, for the Miners. … Washington and Normal conclude the series tonight before the Wild Things begin their most far-flung road trip of the year Friday night in Sauget, Ill., against the Gateway Grizzlies. After playing three games against Gateway, Washington will go to Traverse City, Mich., for a series against the Beach Bums.