Sammies Take First Place After Week 1, Road Warriors Win
WASHINGTON, Pa. (July 12) - Sunday at Wild Things Park, the Steel City Slammin' Sammies took over first place for the pod through one week of play by defeating the Wild Things 4-3 in seven innings in a game shortened by rain. In the other contest, the Road Warrior Black Sox defeated the Baseball Brilliance Sox.
Washington got things going in the home first during the afternoon affair. After Chris Kwitzer had reached via error, he stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and eventually scored on a sac fly in the left-field corner by Josh Rehwaldt. In the second, the Wild Things extended their lead with a bases-loaded RBI single by EP Reese. Reese homered in the fifth to make it 3-0.
That's when the Slammin' Sammies awoke. Catcher Dom DeRenzo hit a two-run homer off the foul pole, his first of the summer, to bring Steel City within a run in the sixth. After a shut-down inning, Joe Campagna singled home the tying run and a few batters later, during DeRenzo's at bat, the game was delayed for about a half hour due to a passing storm. When the game picked up, DeRenzo took the first pitch, a 1-2 pitch with runners on the first two bases, to the left-center wall to drive in the go-ahead run.
Due to time constraints and the delay with the need to clear the stadium before the second game, the teams had agreed during the delay to only play seven innings, unless it was still tied. In that case the would've played up to one extra inning. It wasn't necessary as Elliot Forde retired the Wild Things without a whimper to pick up the save and move Steel City to 3-1. The Wild Things are 2-2.
Ex-Cincinnati Red Brandon Phillips was set to play in the nightcap after appearing in Saturday's late game, but had to attend to a family emergency in Atlanta and was unable to play. He will return to Wild Things Park next week.
In the first, the Road Warrior Black Sox took a 2-0 lead on a two-run double by Zane Gelphman. In the home half, Jacob Bockelie answered and added to it with a grand slam that put Baseball Brilliance ahead 4-2. It stayed that way until the seventh when Chris Salvey hit a two-run shot for the Black Sox to tie the game. Salvey then knocked home the winning run in the ninth.
View box scores below and cumulative stats under the "Stats" tab on washingtonwildthings.com. Next week's schedule will be released soon, with games starting back up Thursday at Wild Things Park.
