Washington Falls Into Early Hole in Loss
CRESTWOOD, Ill. – The Washington Wild Things (46-42) got into a hole early agains the Windy City ThunderBolts (48-41) tonight, and couldn’t climb out of it, falling in the middle game of the three-game set. Windy City held on to its wild-card spot with the 9-3 final score. River City lost as well, as both them and Washington are now 1.5 games back of Windy City in the playoff race for the second wild card.
Washington got on the board first in the second with catcher Kyle Pollock lifting his 10th home run of the season to give the Wild Things a 1-0 lead. After that, it was pretty much all Windy City, as the ThunderBolts plated three runs in the second highlighted by Larry Balkwill’s 17th home run and a two-run double by Ryan Budnick.
The Wild Things got two runs in the third inning to tie it at 3. Centerfielder Rashad Brown connected with a sacrifice fly to plate second baseman Kyle Reese, who had doubled to start the inning. Then, designated hitter Hector Roa singled home right fielder James Harris.
Windy City plated four in the bottom half of the third and a run in the fourth, taking an 8-3 lead to the fifth inning. CoCo Johnson added a solo shot in the sixth, as his seventh of the year pushed the Windy City lead to six. That would be it for Windy City, as it took game two.
Wild Things’ starter Aaron Burns was tagged with the loss, after being charged with seven runs over the course of 2.1 innings. He gave up five hits and walked three. Left-hander Jake Eaton was charged with two runs in 3.2 innings, before Frank Trimarco tossed two scoreless innings. Offensively, Bralin Jackson reached four times for the Wild Things.
The rubber match of the series is scheduled for tomorrow, Sunday, August 27, at 6:05 p.m. EST. Chase Cunningham takes the mound for Washington against Patrick Ledet for Windy City.
