Luke Wilkins pitched a solid six innings allowing only one run, but the Wild Things couldn’t get the big hit when it mattered as they fell to the Southern Illinois Miners 2-1 on a rainy Wednesday afternoon at CONSOL Energy Park.
Wilkins (2-2) allowed seven hits, but allowed only the one run to cross — a Steve Marino solo home run in the second inning — while striking out three in his six-plus innings of work.
His strong effort, however, was not enough as the Wild Things (12-17) were only able to put one run across on the day.
Hours after putting 13 runs on the scoreboard, Washington was unable to continue their hot hitting putting runners in scoring position in three of its first four innings without plating a run.
They finally got on the board against Miners starter Matt Bywater (6-0) — who threw a no-hitter in his previous start — in the sixth.
With a runner on second and two out, Daniel Poma blooped a single into the right-center field gap to tie the game at one.
The Miners (18-11) answered immediately in the seventh as a steady rain seemed to bother Wilkins as he walked the first two batters he faced to start the inning before being replaced by reliever Matt Purnell.
“[Luke] got better as the game went on,” said Wild Things manager Bob Bozzuto. “He was throwing well, but asked in the later innings if he could use steel spikes because of the rain. In hindsight, we probably should have taken him out after the sixth, but he was throwing well and we wanted to give him another shot in the seventh.”
Purnell then gave up a two-strike bunt single and a sacrifice fly to give Southern Illinois the lead back. Miners left fielder Michael Earley tried to tag up and advance to third on the play, but overslid the base and was tagged out eliminating the chance of an insurance run.
The baserunning miscue would not hurt the Miners, however, as the Wild Things could not get the tying run across despite having a runner on second with one out in the seventh and another on with two out in the eighth.
“We just needed that timely hit with runners in scoring position,” said Bozzuto. “What aggravates me is the run they scored to win it was on a walk. You just can’t give free passes. They kill you.”
Washington will look to take the rubber match of the three-game series Thursday night at 7:05.
Starters Lines
(WAS) Wilkins (L, 2-2): 6+ IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 3 K’s, 1 HBP, 1 HR. 98 Pitches (57 Strikes).
(SI) Bywater (W, 6-0): 6 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 9 K’s. 102 Pitches (72 Strikes).
(Photo Credit: Washington Wild Things)
