The Washington Wild Things let the hits pile up and eventually fell to the Lake Erie Crushers, 9-1.
Starting pitcher and pitching coach Gary Lee has been spectacular on the mound this season. It’d be nothing less than an understatement to see he didn’t live up to that standard on the mound for the Wild Things tonight.
The woes started early for Lee and the Wild Things. On the very first pitch of the game, Lee nailed Crushers right fielder Kevin Berard right in the back to send him to first. Two batters and a stolen base later, he was driven in on a fielder’s choice by Andrew Davis. That was how the night went for Washington.
In the top of the 5th, a weird play, sort of like last night’s strike three throw out at second base, occurred. Daniel Bowman was on at first and attempted the steal to second with two outs. He was successful but on the throw down, Davis decided to take off for the plate. He was gunned down and ended the inning.
The Wild Things, again, weren’t able to counter much of anything, not scoring a run until the sixth inning but by that time they were already trailing 4-1.
Center fielder Darion Standford was able to draw a leadoff walk in the sixth and then steal second and third and later score on a Jovan Rosa double. The Wild Things wouldn’t even get a hit the rest of the game.
Lee, despite struggling, kept coming back out onto the field. In the 8th, he would find his last ride of the night.
He gave up four straight singles before being pulled by head coach Bart Zeller.
The move didn’t seem to help any as Mike Heppel allowed a three run triple to Seth Granger to make it 8-1. Juan Sanchez would add a sacrifice fly before the inning was over to make the final score 9-1.
On the triple, Granger felt pretty confident.
“I just wanted to get a good pitch that I could hit and try to bring some guys in,” Granger said.
Some players have that triple all the way mentality, and Granger seemed to be one of those guys out of the box.
“Once I saw it get by the first baseman, I knew I’d be able to get in.”
Granger and Max Casper each had a multiple RBI night for the Crushers.
In the bottom of the 9th, it looked like the Wild Thing had a chance to rally.
After reliever Ricky Bowen walked three straight batters, the first two on eight straight balls, Washington seemed to just lose sight.
Bowen was pulled for Brad Duffy, who recorded two strikeouts and a deep fly out that put a damper on fans’ hopes.
The Wild Things will look to avoid a sweep tomorrow when they take on the Crushers again at Console Energy Park. Game time is set for 5:05 pm ET.
Photo Credit: Flickr.com
