Anthony Brocato's Three-Homer Night Highlights 13-0 Drubbing of Bolts
CRESTWOOD, Il. (June 10) – Anthony Brocato connected with two home runs in an eight-run Washington sixth inning and then hit his third homer, a solo shot in the eighth, for Washington’s first-ever three-homer night, which highlighted a 13-0 drubbing of the Windy City ThunderBolts Wednesday night in the trip’s opener. Zach Kirby spun six shutout innings with a season-best seven strikeouts and Wild Things pitchers combined to fan 13 ThunderBolts as the other highlight of the night.
The Wild Things scored their first run of the game in the third inning on an RBI single to left by Antonio Monroy which plated Caleb Ketchup, who had walked to start the inning and stolen second. Washington added three in the fourth on a homer by Jeff Liquori in his return to the lineup and RBI hits by Ketchup and Kyle Edwards, the latter of which ended up with three hits in the win.
The eight-run inning in the sixth started with a Brocato solo homer, his second hit of the night. Cole Fowler singled and Ketchup walked, setting up Kyle Edwards’s second hit, an RBI single that made it 6-0 on a catcher’s interference call at home that aided the run-scoring play. Isaias Quiroz grounded home the seventh Washinton run before Monroy blooped an RBI double to make it 8-0, scoring Edwards. A few batters later Monroy scored from second on a sac fly to right center by Andrew Czech. The scoring in the inning ended with Brocato’s three run shot to the left-field parking lot, making it 12-0 and giving Brocato a two-homer inning.
Brocato stepped up in the eighth with two outs and hit his third, a homer to center that cleared the wall for the bit of history. Brocato’s three homers give him eight on the year and 96 in his Frontier League career, four off a tie for second in league history and two ahead of Andrew Czech, who has 94 in fourth place on the charts.
Kirby spun six shutout, giving him 11 shutout frames against Windy City this season. He fanned a season-high seven and allowed three hits and three walks for his third victory of the season. It was Washington’s 17th quality start of the year in its 28th game. Michael O’Hanlon looked as sharp as a reliever can be, fanning five of the seven batters he faced in two scoreless. Chad Coles worked a quick and painless ninth with two strikeouts to close things out.
The Wild Things and ThunderBolts will wrap the short two-game set tomorrow at 7:35/6:35 p.m. CDT with Maddox Long going for Washington and Dante Maietta for Windy City.
The 24th season of Wild Things baseball in the MLB-partnered Frontier League is underway with more great baseball and entertainment to come. 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.
Go Wild at washingtonwildthings.com.
