Czech's Two Homers, Pitching Delivering Late Leads Washington to Win
QUEBEC CITY, Quebec, Canada (June 9) – Washington entered a weekend series against the defending Frontier League champs in Quebec losers of four in a row but used two homers by Andrew Czech and good pitching late to hold on to a 7-5 win to snap the skid in the series opener at Stade Canac Friday night.
It was the Wild Things that started the scoring in Quebec City in the series opener. In the second, Robert Chayka doubled to left and the Quebec left fielder bobbled the ball, allowing Wagner Lagrange, who had two singles and a homer in the game, to score to make it 1-0. The lead didn’t last long as Quebec took the lead in the bottom of the inning on a three-run blast by Justin Gideon.
The Wild Things scored again the third, this time on an RBI knock by Melvin Novoa that plated Nick Gotta from second after he doubled. Washington took the lead back in the fourth on the first of Czech’s homers, a two-run bomb off the scoreboard in right center making it 4-3. In the sixth, Lagrange homered to extend the Wild Things’ lead to 5-3.
Hayden Shenefield left after five solid innings of work in his second Wild Things start. Shenefield tossed five innings of three-hit ball and allowed just the three on the Gideon homer. He fanned four.
Quebec greeted Zach Blankenship to the game with a solo shot by Kyle Crowl, making it 5-4 in the bottom of the sixth and after allowing a two-out hit, Blankenship maneuvered out of it with no more damage against. The Capitales also got a solo homer in the seventh to lead the frame off, this time from Marc-Antoine Lebreux to pull the game even at 5-5. That came off Anthony Boix, who allowed a one-out single to Ruben Castro. Castro then stole second and advanced on a throwing error to third, setting up Quebec’s four and five hitters with the potential go-ahead run at third with one away. But Boix fanned both Juremi Profar and Crowl to get out of it.
Czech’s second two-run homer came in the eighth and Andrew Mitchell closed the door from there, setting down all six he faced in the eighth and ninth innings, earning his first save.
Washington will now look to secure a series win north of the border tomorrow night when the series shifts to its middle game at 7:05 p.m. Saturday. Robert Gonzalez will start for the Wild Things, making his Washington debut.
