Offense Shines as Wild Things Take Series In Front of Third-Straight Sellout Crowd

WASHINGTON, Pa. (June 9) – The Washington Wild Things earned the series victory against the Joliet Slammers by a score of 9-3 on Sunday evening at Wild Things Park. The Wild Things were led by strong offensive performances from Andrew Czech and Quincy Latimore as Czech hit his league-best eighth home run of the season while Latimore added three hits including a three-run homer.

The game also marked the first game of the season where the Wild Things hit multiple triples as they slapped three three-baggers. Tonight’s game was also played in front of a crowd of 3,222, the third-straight sellout to cap a weekend that saw an attendance of 10,136 at the ballpark.

The Slammers put up the first runs of the contest in the top of the first. Antonio Valdez doubled to right field before Matthew Warkentin hit a home run to center field. It was the sixth homer of the season for the Joliet first baseman. It did not take long for the Wild Things to respond. With two outs in the bottom of the first inning, a throwing error allowed the inning to continue and Andrew Czech stepped up to the plate.Czech ripped a flyball deep into right field that landed in the parking lot beyond the fence and tied the game at two apiece. The homer was Czech’s league-leading eighth of the season and extended his franchise-record on-base streak to 58 games, now 11 shy of the Frontier League record.

JC Santini gave Washington the lead with a solo shot to left field in the bottom of the second. It was the catcher’s first home run of the season. The following inning, the Wild Things continued their hot hitting as Ethan Wilder ripped a triple into the right-center field gap to start the frame. Czech followed the triple with a one-out walk before Quincy Latimore stepped up to the plate in his 2,026th career professional game. Lattimore lined the pitch down the left field line for a wall-scraping three-run homer which extended the Things lead to 6-2. The homer was Latimore’s fourth of the season and his second hit of the afternoon.

The Slammers struck back in the top of the fourth. Leading off the inning, Warkentin doubled to left and Victor Nova singled to right. Drew Stengren brought Warkentin home with a sacrifice fly to shallow left field in foul ground. Wild Things starter Kobe Foster worked out of the early trouble with a double play ball to get out of the inning. Evan Berkey led off the bottom of the frame with a walk and then moved to third after a single by Caleb McNeely. Ethan Wilder grounded out to third on the following at bat but was able to bring home Berkey in the process. Washington led 7-3 heading into the fifth. In the bottom of the fifth, the Wild Things tore through Joliet’s third pitcher of the game as Tommy Caufield ripped a triple over the head of center fielder Chris Davis. The triple for Caufield was his first of the season and gave the Wild Things their first game with multiple triples. Following the Caufield triple, Washington continued to churn base hits as JC Santini drove in Caufield with an RBI single. Afterwards, Evan Berkey and Caleb McNeely had singles of their own before an RBI fielder's choice from Wilder extended the lead to 9-3.

Justin Goossen-Brown took the mound for the Wild Things in the sixth in relief of Foster. Foster allowed three runs on six hits while striking out three batters in five innings of work. Goose threw two scoreless innings with one punch out. In the bottom of the seventh, McNeely tripled to the gap in right center. It is his fifth three-hit game of the season, a team-high.

Washington called on Frankie Giuliano from the bullpen in the eighth inning. He made his ninth appearance of the season and maintained his scoreless season in relief. Alex Carrillo pitched the ninth for the Wild Things. Carrillo fanned a batter en route to locking up the victory.

The Wild Thing offense was on fire all night with eight batters reaching base at least two times: McNeely, Wilder, Czech, Latimore, Caufield, Robert Chayka, Santini and Berkey. Latimore earned himself his first three-hit outing of the season, joining McNeely in the department for the game. Santini and Chayka were the other Washington batters to record multi-hit performances with two hits each.

The Wild Things have an off day on Monday before hitting the road for six consecutive games. The road trip will start against the Gateway Grizzlies at 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday night.