Washington Gets More Phenomenal Pitching, Wins Ninth in a Row
WASHINGTON, Pa. (May 24) – The Washington Wild Things defeated the Gateway Grizzlies by a score of 4-1 in the opening game of the series. A total of 2,513 fans took in the action on a beautiful Friday night at Wild Things Park. The nine-game win streak is the longest since 2018 for Washington.
The Wild Things got on the scoreboard first with two runs in the bottom of the second inning. Tyreque Reed started the inning with a single up the middle and advanced to second on Robert Chayka’s single. With runners on first and second, JC Santini hit a deep ball off the left field fence to score Reed and advance Chayka. The next batter, Evan Berkey, hit a ground ball to shortstop to score Chayka and collect an RBI.
The Grizzlies responded with a run of their own in the third. Cole Brannen hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Andrew Moritz who singled to lead off the inning, making it 2-1 in favor of Washington.
After a few scoreless innings, Quincy Latimore had a leadoff double in the bottom of the sixth. After Andrew Czech got walked, Grizzlies pitcher Alec Whaley got called for a balk to advance the runners. Gateway intentionally walked Tommy Caufield to load the bases. Chayka took a pitch up the middle of the infield to bring Latimore home. Entering the seventh inning, the Wild Things held a 3-1 lead.
Carson Clowers pushed the advantage to 4-1 for the Wild Things in the bottom of the seventh with a ground ball paired with a throwing error by the Grizzlies to score Evan Berkey who got hit by a pitch to open the inning.
Kobe Foster earned himself a quality start on the mound for Washington. Foster tossed seven innings, allowing just one run on four hits. He struck out five batters to round out his standout performance, which was Washington’s fourth-straight quality start from the rotation.
Alex Carillo took the bump in relief of Foster and pitched a scoreless eighth. Gyeongju Kim entered in the ninth to close it out for Washington. Kim secured his fourth save of the season by retiring the side with a punch out to boot.
The Wild Things and Grizzlies face off for game two of the series on Saturday night at Wild Things Park. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. It is Ohio Valley Community Night presented by WTOV-9. The first 1,000 fans will receive the BBQ Mitt Giveaway presented by Berks Foods.
