Jul 5, 2018 2 min read

FLORENCE, Ky. – The Wild Things prevented a sweep in their final road series before the Frontier League all-star break.

Dropping the first two of a three-game series against host Florence, Washington piled on the runs early to defeat the Freedom in the series finale Thursday, 12-4.

The Wild Things hit four of their five home runs in the first five innings, including back-to-back homers in the first from Kyle Pollock and Hector Roa to give them a 3-0 lead. It was Pollock’s ninth home run on the season and second in two games for Roa.

Washington then provided more run support for starting pitcher Chase Cunningham with four runs in the fourth inning. Brett Marr and James Harris hit sacrifice flies to score the first two runs. Carter McEachern then hit a two-run homer to score Conner Simonetti that gave the Wild Things a 7-2 lead.

Cunningham (3-3) bounced back from his worst outing of the season when he only lasted 2 2/3 innings and gave up nine runs Friday’s 13-4 loss against Schaumburg. He surrendered five hits, three runs (two earned) and struck out three in seven innings to earn the win.

The only two earned runs Cunningham surrendered were on a pair of solo home runs from Jacob Wark in the second and Ricky Ramirez in the sixth. Wark and Ramirez were the only two players for Florence to have a hit through the first six innings. They collected six of the seven hits for the Freedom, each going 3-for-4.

Mike Hill led the Washington lineup with four hits, including a pair of two-run homers in the fifth and seventh innings. Louis Mele went 3-for-5. Pollock, Roa and McEachern each had two hits for the Wild Things.

Florence starter Steve Hagen (6-3) suffered the loss since June 11.