Slammin' Sammies Win 4th Straight, Road Warriors Win
WASHINGTON, Pa. (July 17) - Friday night at Wild Things Park featued a bunch of home runs and wins for the Steel City Slammin' Sammies and the Road Warrior Black Sox. In total, 11 balls left the yard, including multi-home run games for Black Sox' first baseman Chris Salvey, Baseball Brilliance designated hitter Jacob Bockelie and Slammin' Sammies' catcher Dom DeRenzo.
In the day's first contest, Baseball Brilliance used two, two-run homers to jump out to a 4-0 lead in the visitors' first. The home runs were hit by Brennan Price and Bockelie. Then, in the home half, Slammin' Sammies' second baseman John Sansone hit a two-run homer of his own to cut the lead in half.
In the second, Liam Sabino hit a solo shot to make it 4-3 before Saige Jenco scored on a passed ball, tying the game after two innings. Then in the third DeRenzo launched the first of his two long balls of the day to give the Sammies a lead they'd relinquish before pulling away as they won their fourth straight to move to 5-1 on the summer. In the fourth, Nick Ward doubled home a run to push the Steel City lead to 6-4.
That's when Bockelie went deep with another two-run shot to tie the game in the fifth against Steel City start Matt DeSalvo. The bullpen was perfect from there for Steel City. In the sixth, Steel City plated two: one on a single by Robbie Thorburn and one on a sac fly by Sansone. DeRenzo's seventh-inning solo shot put the game to its final of 9-6. Zach Reid got the win in relief and Jesus Balaguer the save, each of their firsts on the summer.
The focus then shifted to the second game, as the Road Warriors used extra-base hits and several home runs to pull away from the Wild Things early off starter John Havird, who yielded nine runs on 12 hits in four and change. In that, Derek Reddy hit a solo shot, Salvey drove in five with his two homers combined and the Black Sox got run-scoring hits from Nicco Toni, Brooks Benson and Reddy elsewhere.
The six-run fifth for the Road Warriors was a big reason for the win. That answered a solo shot by Ray Hernandez for the Wild Things in the fourth. Washington went on to add two on a two-run knock by catcher Cody Erickson in the sixth, a scoring play that made it 9-3. Washington, in the eighth, got an RBI single from Chris Kwitzer but left the bases full. The Black Sox added a run in the ninth.
The Road Warriors pulled even with the Wild Things in the standings, with both now 3-3.
You can view box scores from each game below and cumulative stats for the first six days on the Wild Things' website under the stats tab on the home page.
Tomorrow, the Slammin' Sammies and Wild Things do battle at 3 p.m. before the Road Warriors and Sox play in the second game at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at washingtonwildthings.com.
