Fregio's 6th-Straight Quality Start Leads to Middle-Game Victory
JOLIET, Il. (July 31) – A great month of July for the Wild Things and for Wednesday’s starter Dariel Fregio was capped with another rock-solid performance as the Wild Things used a quality start from Fregio and scattered offense to take the middle game at Slammers Stadium, 5-2 in a Coffee Cup affair.
Fregio turned in his sixth-consecutive quality start in the win, his eighth of the season, a total good for second in the league through the completion of this game. The righty allowed six hits and two runs with eight strikeouts over 6.2 innings of work. He walked one and hit one, tossing the outing in 96 pitches. In his last six starts in total now, Fregio has logged a 4-0 record with 10 total runs allowed (nine earned) in 38.2 innings of work with 27 hits surrendered. In that span, the second-year pro has struck out 30.
The work wasn’t without support for Fregio. Christian James came on and stranded two inherited runners for the second-straight night by punching Matthew Warkentin out with runners on the corners to end the seventh in relief of Fregio. Ryan Munoz worked a scoreless eighth and Alex Carrillo a scoreless ninth to earn his first save as a Wild Thing and in 2024.
Joliet started the scoring with an RBI single by Adam Pottinger in the second before Washington scored the next two runs over the next two turns to the plate to take the lead at 2-1. In the third, Tommy Caufield blasted his 10th homer of the season over the right field wall and in the fourth Robert Chayka singled Tyreque Reed home from second.
The Slammers used an RBI triple by Pottinger to tie the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth but Washington took the lead right back in the top of the fifth on a sac fly by Reed that plated Caufield, who had singled earlier in the frame and went to third on a double by Jalen Miller. The Wild Things then scored on a sacrifice bunt that saw a throwing error allow JC Santini to reach and Brandon McIlwain to score. McIlwain doubled to start the ninth. Carson Clowers then lifted a fly ball to right deep enough to plate Washington’s fifth run on the sacrifice fly to cap the scoring.
The Wild Things got two-hit efforts from Caleb McNeely, Caufield and Miller in the win.
Kobe Foster (6-1, 2.90 ERA) takes the ball tomorrow night as Washington will close the three-game quick trip looking for a sweep over Brett Sanchez (4-3, 3.55 ERA) and the Slammers. The win today was Washington’s league-leading 45th of the season, as the club now owns a temporary 5.5-game lead for first in the West and a temporary 10.5-game lead on Schaumburg, the fourth-place club in the West on the outside looking in. The rest of the division sans Windy City, who also played a day game, plays later tonight in Frontier League action.
Thursday’s first pitch in Joliet is slated for 7:35/6:35 p.m. CDT.
