The Washington Wild Things took their first home series of the 2015 season as they defeated the Lake Erie Crushers 6-0 on Wednesday night at CONSOL Energy Park.
Washington (17-24) struck early and often against Lake Erie starter Rob Blanc (0-3) who allowed four runs on seven hits in six innings of work.
Daniel Poma started the scoring for Washington in the first with a leadoff single. He then advanced to third on walks by Sam Mende and C.J. Beatty and scored on a sacrifice fly by Carter Bell.
Mende extended the lead to 3-0 in the third inning on a two-run home run to left field and David Popkins added two home runs for himself in the fourth and eighth innings.
It was the first time Popkins has homered since June 16th against Southern Illinois. Popkins started the year on a hot streak, but cooled off once pitchers faced him a second time.
“I just changed my sights on the ball,” said Popkins. “Me and [Bozzuto] went and talked to Pete Rose yesterday and he really emphasized watching the spin of the ball and I’ve never really focused purely on the spin of the ball and honestly, it’s made the ball look more in slow motion the last two games.”
The six runs were plenty for Wild Things starter Ernesto Zaragoza (4-2), who threw seven strong innings of three-hit no-run ball while striking out four.
It was a welcome change for Zaragoza, who only lasted 0.2 innings in his last start at CONSOL Energy Park.
“When [Zaragoza] is in the strike zone, the opponent goes up there hacking,” said Wild Things manager Bob Bozzuto. “There were only a couple of at bats that were quality at bats for them. He had them off balance and they hit the ball where we were.”
Lake Erie (15-23) had their chances to get on the board against Zaragoza, but strong defensive plays kept them off the board.
With runners on first and second and no out in the fifth, Zaragoza fielded a comebacker to the mound and quickly threw out the lead runner for the first out.
Zaragoza then got into more trouble in the inning when a wild pitch allowed runners to advance to second and third, but once again, Zaragoza made two more good pitches to get two ground outs to end the inning.
Eight of nine Wild Things starters reached base while five scored at least one run in the game. A welcome sign for a team struggling to swing the bat at a .228 rate.
“Were going to take this one game at a time,” said Bozzuto. “They are working hard. We are not a .228 average team. We have good ball players on this club. However, we still have too many things to work on to feel good about ourselves. You don’t take good wins for granted. It was nice to get the W. Tomorrow is another day and we’ll try to go on another one-game winning streak tomorrow.”
The Wild Things will look for a three-game sweep of the Crushers Thursday evening at 7:05.
Starters Lines
(WAS) Zaragoza (W, 4-2): 7 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 4 K’s, 1 WP, 2 HBP. 109 Pitches (53 Strikes).
(LE) Blanc (L, 0-3): 6 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB, 2 K’s, 1 HBP, 2 HR. 87 Pitches (51 Strikes).
(Photo Credit: Washington Wild Things)
