May 28, 2023 4 min read

At the end of what had been a forgettable week, the Wild Things put together one of the most amazing victories in their 21-season history Saturday night.

Washington, which gave up 11 runs in the first four innings, overcame a pair of six-run deficits, then squandered a late lead before defeating the Tri-City ValleyCats 13-12 on a long walk-off single by Andrew Czech in the bottom of the 10th inning.

It was Czech’s fifth RBI of the game and snapped the Wild Things’ six-game skid.

“That’s how you break a losing streak,” Washington manager Tom Vaeth said. “We need more from everybody – for everybody to pitch in.”

And that’s what happened in this game. Washington starter Greg Loukinen had a rough outing when the Wild Things needed him to pitch deep into the game because the bullpen has been overworked. Loukinen was roughed up for 11 hits and 11 runs (nine earned) in 3 2/3 innings, but he had about 16 guys rush to pick him up.

Jaxon Hallmark and Casron McCusker each homered in the second inning for the ValleyCats and Trey Hair hit his third homer against Washington in seven days during the fourth inning.

The Wild Things trailed 8-2 in the second inning and 11-5 in the fourth.

It didn’t look good for Washington, but reliever Zach Blankenship threw 1 1/3 innings of a scoreless ball in relief of Loukinen and that settled the game down from Washington’s perspective and gave the Wild Things a chance at a comeback.

Tri-City, meanwhile, had its pitching woes, too. The ValleyCats used seven pitchers, who combined to issue seven walks and hit two batters.

“We were down early, but we knew we weren’t out of it,” said Czech, who went 3-for-5 with a double and triple to go with the five RBI.

“Our goal was to chip away and chip away. It was 11-5 but we still had six innings left. We were going to grind the game out.”

The Wild Things used three singles and Czech’s RBI triple to score three times in the fourth and close to within 11-8. They tied the score in the sixth as Wagner Lagrange hit a solo home run, and Anthony Brocato and Robert Chayka added consecutive RBI doubles.

Washington took its first lead in the eighth. Tristian Peterson was hit by a pitch to start the inning and moved to second on wild pitch. Harrison Ray entered the game as a pinch-runner for Peterson and scored when Czech singled up the middle to put the Wild Things in front, 12-11.

Wild Things pitchers Blankenship, Arrison Perez, Andrew Mitchell and Christian James combined for 4 1/3 scoreless innings of relief. All-star closer Lukas Young was brought in for the ninth, but Josh Broughton, who has been a thorn in the Wild Things’ side this season, led off with a single , stole second base and scored on a two-out single up the middle by McCusker that tied the score at 12-12.

The ValleyCats stranded the tiebreaker runner at third base in the 10th against Young (2-0) and Washington won it in the bottom of the inning against Tri-City closer Reymin Guduan (0-1).

Lagrange began the inning at second base as the tiebreaker runner. Ray put down a perfect sacrifice bunt, moving Lagrange to third with one out. Czech then hit the first pitch of his at-bat deep to right centerfield. It dropped and scored Lagrange.

“That was a credit to the guys in that (locker) room. They were tired of losing and played like it,” Vaeth said.

“We definitely caught a break with who we had up in the 10th. Harrison Ray did a great job of getting that bunt down against a hard-throwing lefthander to move the runner to third base.”