May 27, 2017 4 min read

Match the Wild Things against the Florence Freedom in Washington on a Saturday night and the confrontations seem to follow.

Flash back to the Saturday night in August of 2003 when then-Florence manager Tom Browning was ejected but attempted to coach his team while sitting on a bucket outside the field behind the left-field foul pole. That sparked Washington manager Jeff Isom to yell at the Freedom players and coaches during at an inning break, promoting a benches-clearing incident that wasn’t squelched until chiseled Wild Things coach Joe Charboneau got between Isom and the Freedom.

Fast forward to the Saturday night in July of 2014 when the Florence and Washington players who were on the field were distracted when the midgame scuffling was being done in the Wild Things’ dugout and was between the home team’s manager and pitching coach.

Washington and Florence were at it again Saturday night at Wild Things Park. The benches and bullpens quickly emptied in the bottom of the fifth inning after Washington third baseman Mike Hill was hit by an 0-2 pitch from Florence starter Marty Anderson. The ball hit Hill near the hand and ricocheted high in the air toward the third-base on-deck circle.

Hill made it about halfway to first base before turning around and heading back toward home plate and going chest-to-chest with Florence catcher Garrett Vail. Players and coaches quickly flooded the field, and several players were thrown to the turf, but order was restored in less than a minute.

Hill and Vail both were ejected. Vail appeared to suffer a shoulder injury in the skirmish as he was attended to by a trainer for several minutes outside the Florence dugout.

Washington manager Gregg Langbehn didn’t want to talk on the record about the scuffle but said he expected action to be taken by the league in the form of suspensions.

While there wasn’t much room between the Wild Things and Freedom both on the field and on the scoreboard, Florence managed to pull out a 6-4 come-from-behind victory. The Freedom have the Frontier League’s best record at 11-3 and have won the first two games in the three-game series.

Washington had 11 hits and plenty of chances to win the game but went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position over the final four innings.

“We left a lot of guys in scoring position,” Langbehn said.

More disturbing was Washington pitchers gave up 11 hits, issued nine walks and hit a batter.

“I don’t mind the hits, but I’m disappointed with the walks,” Langbehn said. “You can’t give a team like that life.”

Wild Things rookie starting pitcher Hunter Williams walked five in 4 1/3 innings. He allowed only two runs and was able to limit the damage by inducing a double-play grounder in the first and second innings. It was, however, the second consecutive out-of-control start by Williams.

“I don’t know if he’s pressing,” Langebhn said of the 21-year-old Williams who is draft eligible after playing the last two seasons for the University of North Carolina. There were about a half dozen scouts in attendance and they were focused on the lefty pitcher.

“Everyone here has been down that road before,” Langbehn said. “They’ve all played with scouts watching. It’s an opportunity for everybody to show what they can do. It’s hard to play like, but it’s the reality of having an organization looking at you.

“I wasn’t disappointed with how Hunter threw, but I think he ran out of gas in the fourth inning.”

Florence used three walks, two hits and a passed ball to take a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth but Washington answered with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning. Hector Roa and Alex Fernandez each had RBI singles for the Wild Things.

The score was still 2-2 when the benches emptied in the fifth. Two batters after play resumed, Kane Sweeney smacked a two-run single to give Washington the lead.

The lead didn’t last long as Florence scored three times in the sixth to take a 5-4 lead. Again, walks played a major role in the Freedom’s scoring. Washington relievers Joe Ravert and Davis Adkins combined for three walks in the inning and Jose Brizuela had a two-run go-ahead single.

Florence added an insurance run in the ninth when Collins Cuthrell tripled into the right-field corner and scored on a bloop single by Jordan Brower.

Anderson gave up 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings but improved his record to 2-0. Matt Pobereyko struck out all four batters he faced for his fourth save.

Ravert (1-1), the second of five Washington pitchers, took the loss.