Washington Sweeps New York, Stands Alone in 1st Place
WASHINGTON, Pa. (September 2) - In comeback fashion, the Wild Things took the series finale over New York 8-7 and the win, coupled with a loss by Sussex County, sets the stage for the weekend series at Sussex County with the Wild Things up one game in the Northeast Division.
The scoring started with a high-scoring first frame of the contest. New York scored twice in the first off Wild Things' starter Keven Pimentel. After a bunt single by Milton Smith Jr., while the ball was still in play, Jack Sundberg scampered home ahead of a throw from Pimentel, who was attempting to let the bunt roll foul. That made it 1-0 Boulders before it went to 2-0 when a ball got by Scotty Dubrule for the first error of the night for the Wild Things on a batted ball by Ray Hernandez. Washington scored four times in the bottom half of the frame with a two-run double by Bralin Jackson to score Andrew Sohn and Scotty Dubrule. Jackson came in on Hector Roa's 12th home run of the campaign, a two-run shot, giving Washington its first lead at 4-2.
The homer for Roa was the 57th of his Wild Things' career, pulling him even with former Thing Jacob Dempsey at 57 career home runs, the all-time Wild Things' career record.
New York got a run back in the second, unearned, on an error by Nick Ward at short on a ground ball from Kevonte Mitchell. New York tied the contest in the third with an RBI single by DH Marcus Mastrobuoni. The tie didn't last long though, as Washington re-took the lead on a hot shot by Jackson up the middle scoring Dubrule, who had doubled in the home half. After a scoreless fourth, the Boulders used a three-run fifth inning to take the lead. Phil Caulfield lifted a sac fly to score the first of three in the frame before Phil Capra launched his eighth home run of the campaign to give the visitors a 7-5 lead.
Washington got one back in the sixth on a sac fly by Trevor Casanova to make it 7-6. After McKenzie Mills put a zero up in the seventh, BJ Sabol did the same in the eighth which set the stage for the bottom of the eighth for the hosts. Bralin Jackson walked to start the frame, was advanced on a Heyman sac bunt, went to third on a passed ball and scored on a wild pitch by Nathan Alexander to tie the game. Hector Roa then doubled. He finished a triple shy of the cycle in the game. Roa scored on a roller through the middle by Casanova, which gave the Things an 8-7 lead.
Zach Strecker fanned two to get the save, his 21st, which matches a career high for a single season.
Washington heads to Augusta, New Jersey overnight to start a four-game, Labor-Day weekend series with Sussex County tomorrow at 7:05 p.m. It's a significant series in the Northeast Division race, as the Wild Things enter with the aforementioned one-game lead. Washington has 10 games to play while the Miners have 11.
