Washington Rolls to Series Opening Win With Big Fifth and Sixth Innings

FLORENCE, Ky. (May 31) – The Washington Wild Things, after losing a fourth-inning lead, used strong fifth and sixth innings to re-take the lead and then raced to victory to move to 9-0 on the road in 2024 with an 11-5 win over Florence to open the weekend series.

The Wild Things struck first, scoring two on a Carson Clowers single in the second inning to open the scoring. Malik Barington didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, when Florence used a four-hit frame to scratch across four runs and take a 4-2 lead to the fifth.

Wild Things’ manager Tom Vaeth was ejected by the home plate umpire following that frame as Florence made a pitching change to move away from Japan-born starter Ayura Kobayashi, who yielded the two runs in four frames in his pro debut. That’s when Washington broke open the game.

Washington plated six in the fifth inning on RBI doubles from Andrew Czech, Wagner Lagrange and Tommy Caufield, a bases-loaded walk to Caleb McNeely and a two-run single by Ethan Wilder. The Road Warriors would add three in the sixth on an RBI single by Tyreque Reed and a two-run single by Robert Chayka.

Florence’s Ashton Creal homered off Liam Pulsipher to start the seventh, which made it 11-5 Washington. That was all the scoring in the game.

Barrington got the win to go to 2-1 with five innings of four-run ball. Nick MacDonald worked a scoreless sixth. Liam Pulsipher was tagged for the run in two innings and Christian James finished the game in the ninth.

The Wild Things scored their 11 runs on 16 hits with multi-hit nights from Caufield, Clowers, Chayka, Reed and Lagrange. Chayka, Wilder and Clowers all drove in a pair.

It’s Washington’s fourth-straight win overall and ninth in a row on the road. The club has also won 13 of 15 and now sits alone in first place in the West after Schaumburg’s loss to Trois-Rivieres.

The series shifts to the middle game at 6:36 p.m. tomorrow when Jordan DiValerio toes the rubber for the Wild Things.