Matt Sergey couldn’t hold on to his solid 2.53 ERA going into Friday as he allowed seven runs over 6.1 innings as the Washington Wild Things were shut out by the Traverse City Beach Bums 7-0 at Consol Energy Park.
Sergey (1-3) found trouble from the start allowing back-to-back one out hits in the first. He then got a sacrifice fly for the second out, but again surrendered another single and a three-run home run to put Washington into an early hole.
Things didn’t improve much in the second as Sergey allowed a one-out double and single before a throwing error on a steal allowed the fifth run of the game to score. Another throwing error from third basemen Carter Bell allowed another run to score.
“Matt just didn’t have his stuff,” said Wild Things manager Bob Bozzuto. “He elevated the fastball in the first two innings and that’s when they hit him.”
Sergey would settle down from there retiring twelve of the next fourteen batters he faced before surrendering the final Beach Bums run in the seventh to end his night.
“I thought [Matt] battled through and gave us the opportunity to not use our bullpen as much,” said Bozzuto.
The large run support by the Beach Bums (10-8) was plenty for starter Ian MacDougal, who did the direct opposite of Sergey by throwing 8.1 innings of shutout baseball.
The Wild Things (8-11) had a chance to make it a game in the sixth trailing 6-0 when they put their first two batters on base. C.J. Beatty then hit a hard grounder up the middle that deflected off of MacDougal’s hamstring and right to the second basemen for a force play.
Had the ball not hit MacDougal, the ball would have safely made it through the infield scoring a run and putting two on with no out and the heart of the order up. However, that wasn’t the case and Washington went down quietly to end the inning.
David Popkins paced the Wild Things offense with three of the team’s seven hits on the night.
The Wild Things will look to even the three-game series tomorrow night at 7:05.
Starters Lines
(WAS) Sergey (L, 1-3): 6.1 IP, 10 H, 7 R, 5 ER, 4 K’s, 1 HR. 101 Pitches (71 Strikes)
(TC) MacDougal (W, 3-0): 8.1 IP,7 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K’s. 117 Pitches (72 Strikes)
(Photo Credit: Washington Wild Things)
