Washington Wins Crazy Series Opener at ValleyCats in Extras

TROY, NY (May 17) – The Washington Wild Things built a 10-2 lead in the series opener against the Tri-City ValleyCats, saw the ‘Cats come all the way back to tie things and force extras and won it in 10, 13-11.

The teams traded runs in the first inning. Washington (3-3) took advantage of three Wes Albert walks and a single by Tommy Caufield to plate two in the frame on a two-run single by Tyreque Reed. Alec Olund knocked in two for the home squad in the bottom half with a double.

Washington scored the game’s next eight runs between innings two and four. In the second, Carson Clowers hit his first professional home run to lead the frame off and, later in the inning, Reed drove in two more with another single, making it 5-2. Tommy Caufield knocked in two with a single in the third. In the fourth, Alex Ovalles hit his first homer of the year and Caleb McNeely hit his second, a two-run homer, to push the lead to 10-2.

Tri-City (3-4) scored three times in the bottom of the fourth with the first coming in on a sac fly by Oscar Campos and the second and third runs on a two-run bomb by former Wild Thing Ian Walters. Kyle Novak homered off Dariel Fregio to start the fifth and after two walks followed that, Fregio was relieved by Nick MacDonald, who induced Washington’s first double play of the season to get the Wild Things out of it.

Fregio walked a career-high seven and allowed six runs on eight hits in his no decision. He also fanned five. MacDonald ended up throwing the sixth without yielding more runs. Justin Goossen-Brown pitched a scoreless seventh and then the ‘Cats got two in the eighth. Alex Carrillo walked the first hitter, hit the second batter and then got a flyout before inducing a ground ball comebacker. He attempted to throw home but his throw was wild, allowing two to score to make it 10-8. It was Washington’s first error of the season, ending a 50.1-inning errorless streak.

Washington took a 10-8 lead to the bottom of the ninth and Lukas Young’s first save opportunity of the young season, but Tri-City managed to scratch across two on an RBI single by Ryan Cash and a Campos sacrifice fly.

In the 10th, JC Santini knocked home Robert Chayka, who ran for Reed as the international tiebreaker rule runner, then Santini and Evan Berkey, who was hit by a pitch, scored on a base hit by Caleb McNeely on which a throw to third got by third, making it 13-10. Gyeongju Kim surrendered a lead-off RBI double to Chris Burgess in the home half, scoring the international tiebreaker rule runner, unearned, then finished the game with a pair of strikeouts and a fly ball to left in between those, earning his first pro decision and save in the process.

Andrew Czech posted three hits including two more doubles and walked twice, moving his franchise-record on-base streak to 38 games in the process and his active hit streak, which dates back to 2023, to eight games. McNeely’s two-hit, three-walk, 3-RBI night brought an active on-base streak for him that dates back to 2023 to 20 games. In 23 career games now, McNeely has failed to reach in just one contest.

Caufield added two hits and two RBI, Reed posted four RBI in a multi-hit night, Clowers had two hits and Evan Berkey scored four runs with two hits and two HBPs.

The series continues Saturday with the middle game, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at “The Joe” in Troy. Lefty Kobe Foster will toe the slab for Washington against right-hander Dan Beebe for the ValleyCats. A live broadcast is available from the Wild Things Baseball Network, beginning with pre-game coverage at 6 p.m. on FloBaseball (subscription required) or MixLR (free).