Washington Clubs Five More Homers, Hangs On to Take Game 1
WASHINGTON, Pa. (May 13) – The Washington Wild Things got another strong start from Zach Kirby, clubbed five more homers and held on late to take the front end of Wednesday’s doubleheader in Evansville, 7-6.
The Wild Things scored the first seven runs of the game, starting with a three-run second inning. Anthony Brocato stepped in with a runner aboard and delivered his second homer in as many nights, the 90th of his Frontier League career, pulling him temporarily ahead of Andrew Czech on the Frontier League history chart for third. Later in the inning, Isaias Quiroz’s first Wild Things hit made it 3-0, an RBI double off the left field wall.
In the third, Washington got solo homers from Graham Brown, Czech and Brocato, for his second of the game. Brown’s, against his former team, made it 4-0 and was his second as a Wild Thing. Czech hit his 90th, re-tying him with Brocato for third in league history for all of two batters, when Brocato’s homer made it 6-0 and put him back in front of Czech with 91 career long balls in the league. Jeff Liquori added a solo shot in the fifth, his fifth homer.
While that was happening, Kirby was dealing. He was perfect through four innings with four strikeouts and took the bid in the shortened game one to the fifth. With one out, Marcos Gonzalez homered to make it 7-1 and bust up the bid. Evansville ended up with five hits in the inning and scored twice with Caleb Ketchup cutting down a third at the plate for the third out. The Otters grabbed two charged to Kirby in the sixth and two in the seventh that were charged to Chad Coles, who had come on for the save chance. He didn’t blow it, but couldn’t finish the frame, leaving after a pair of softly-hit singles loaded the bases.
Landon Ginn came on and delivered a pitch that was hit for a fly out to left to end the threat and the first of the twinbill. Kirby is 1-0 and Ginn earned his first save as a Wild Thing.
The second game of the doubleheader will start shortly with Maddox Long set to make his pro debut on the mound against Evansville righty Ryan Wiltse.
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.
