The Washington Wild Things one-run woes continue as they blew a late 1-0 lead on Friday night only to fall to the Frontier Greys 2-1 in 12 innings at CONSOL Energy Park.
Matt Sergey put in a solid effort for the Wild Things (12-19) keeping the Greys off the board through eight innings while only allowing three hits and striking out nine.
Sergey returned for the ninth and recorded a quick first out, but then gave up a pinch-hit home run to Jhiomar Veras to tie the game.
“Sergey should have won that ballgame,” said Wild Things manager Bob Bozzuto. “He was doing a great job. He was in control. Veras comes in, Sergey makes a good pitch and he does his job and hits it out. It’s a shame, but we should have had more than one on the board.”
Washington looked to have set themselves up for an international tiebreaker walk-off — the tiebreaker involves starting an inning with a runner on second and no out — in the bottom of the eleventh when C.J. Beatty put down a sacrifice bunt to move Scott Kalamar from second. The throw went to third, but it appeared that Greys third basemen Brandon Tierney missed the tag allowing Kalamar to take the base.
A livid Greys manager, Vinny Ganz, sprinted onto the field prior to the finish of the play to argue the call which was soon after overturned by field umpire Sal Giacomantonio.
Bozzuto then ran onto the field for an explanation on the outrageous play.
“I was arguing that he called [Kalamar] safe and why did he need help when he called him safe,” said Bozzuto. “His excuse is that they don’t have a three-man crew. If he’s the guy at third, what’s he watching?”
Another reporter asked why they would need another umpire in that situation. Bozzuto replied, “It’s because he’s not good.”
“You can write this down. I don’t give a damn,” Bozzuto added. “They can suspend me.”
The Greys (13-16) then scored a run off of reliever Richie Mirowski to take a 2-1 lead in the twelfth. With two out and runners on first and second, Mirowski gave up a sharp single to left field by Ben Lodge. Beatty came up throwing and fired a strike to catcher John Fidanza, but Fidanza was unable to hold on to the ball allowing the winning run to score.
Washington went ahead 1-0 in the seventh on a Austin Wobrock RBI double. Wobrock tried extending the play to third, but was thrown out.
It was one of many baserunning errors the Wild Things made keeping the game close for the Greys to tie up late.
“We didn’t make the plays,” said Bozzuto. “We didn’t get the bunts down and we didn’t execute. We ran the bases awfully. It was awful the way we ran the bases. They are rookies and they are only going to get better.”
The Wild Things will look to even the three-game series Saturday night at 7:05.
Starters Lines
(WAS) Sergey (ND): 8.1 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 9 K’s, 1 HBP, 1 HR. 114 Pitches (82 Strikes).
(FRO) Kraus (ND): 6.2 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K’s. 104 Pitches (64 Strikes).
(Photo Credit: Travis Berardi/PSN)
