Liquori and Kirby Shine in Opening Night Defeat at Hands of Windy City
CRESTWOOD, Il. (May 7) – The Washington Wild Things got a two-homer night from Jeff Liquori and five shutout frames from starter Zach Kirby in Thursday’s season opener at Ozinga Field, but ultimately fell victim to two three-run frames for the ThunderBolts in the seventh and eighth, dropping game one of 102, 6-3.
Zach Kirby took the ball for his second-straight and second-overall Opening Day start and was great. Over five innings of shutout ball, he allowed only one baserunner, but faced the minimum after the leadoff single in the second by Oscar Serratos was erased by Isaias Quiroz’s throw to second with Serratos trying to swipe the bag before the first out was recorded. Kirby ended up throwing 61 pitches in an outing designed to be shorter. Of those, 44 were strikes and Kirby whiffed six ThunderBolt hitters. He’ll likely pitch again when the road trip gets to Evansville early next week.
Washington grabbed the first three runs of the game, getting the first on the first of two solo homers by second-year Thing Jeff Liquori, who took former Wild Thing Tyler Wehrle deep in the second inning to lead the frame off, making it 1-0. Washington managed two walks in the first and saw Kyle Edwards swipe his first bag of the campaign. In the third, Graham Brown struck a two-out single, stole second and scored on a single by Andrew Czech, who drove in. his 286th run of his career with it.
Brown ended up with a multi-hit night in his first night as a Wild Thing and was on base three times. Liquori blasted his second homer in the seventh after Zander Sechrist had worked a clean sixth with a pair of punchouts.
In the seventh, and with the bases loaded, former Ottawa Titans catcher Victor Cerny stepped in and tied the game with one swing, a laced three-run double to left center. Last year’s All-Star rep for Windy City, Michael Sandle, who also did damage in last year’s season opener against the Bolts, doubled home the eventual winning run in the eighth against Kelvin Perez, who was tagged with the loss. Carlos Pena singled home two more later in the eighth. Cerny’s swing was a big one, as it helped deliver first-night manager Tom Carcione his first managerial win as a full-time manager in baseball. Cerny and Carcione are both over from Ottawa this season.
It was an otherwise quiet night for Washington’s offense, who will look to get going tomorrow in a tough matchup in the series opener at Joliet. Gunnar Kines will pitch for Joliet and Kobe Foster for the Wild Things with first pitch in Joliet, Illinois scheduled for 7:35/6:35 p.m. CDT.
The 24th season of Wild Things baseball in the MLB-partnered Frontier League is underway with the homer opener scheduled for Friday, May 15 against the Schaumburg Boomers at EQT Park. For updates, other information and more, visit washingtonwildthings.com or follow the team on social media at facebook.com/WashingtonWildThings or @WashWildThings on other platforms. Single game tickets are available now and the club’s promo schedule has been released. You can buy tickets here.
