Washington Wins Opener In Windy City

CRESTWOOD, Ill. – The Washington Wild Things (46-41) came back from a two-run deficit to defeat the Windy City Thunderbolts (47-41) tonight, with a final score of 4-3. Trevor Foss (11-5) started on the mound, pitching seven strong innings of two-run baseball while striking out three batters. With this result and Normal defeating River City, the Wild Things are now a half game back of the wild card.

The Thunderbolts started the scoring as they plated two runs in the bottom of the third, highlighted by an RBI double from first baseman Larry Balkwill and an RBI single from second baseman Tim Zeir. After a scoreless fourth, first baseman Kane Sweeney tallied the first run for Washington, as he led off with his 15th home run of the year. Then, in the top of the sixth, the Wild Things tied the game as centerfielder Rashad Brown tripled in second baseman Kyle Reese. This hit extended Brown’s hitting streak to seven games.

Another triple in the top of the seventh gave the Wild Things their first lead of the game, this time coming on the bat of right fielder Hector Roa. A sacrifice fly plated Roa, and Washington took a 4-2 lead.

This score held until the bottom of the ninth, as Zeir led off with a triple, and then was plated on a groundout, cutting the deficit to one. Right fielder Blair Beck then singled, and brought the winning run to the plate. Closer Zach Strecker fell behind the batter 3-0, but then worked his way back to strikeout the batter and get the save for Washington as they held on to win 4-3.

The Wild Things look to win the series tomorrow, as Aaron Burns takes the mound. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. EST.

Boxscore: http://baseball.pointstreak.com/boxscore.html?gameid=379346