Wild Things Walked-off in 10 in Season Opener

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FL Washington Wild Things

Wild Things Walked-off in 10 in Season Opener

May 9, 2025 - Frontier League (FL)
Washington Wild Things News Release


WASHINGTON, PA - The Washington Wild Things mustered eight runs on 12 hits and had some excellent individual performances to open the 2025 campaign in Crestwood against the ThunderBolts, but suffered a wlak-off defeat at the hands of Windy City, who won its 7th-straight home opener with a walk-off sac fly by Christian Kuzemka in the 10th inning, winning the game 9-8.

Windy City scratched across the first run in the second after Washington starter Zach Kirby walked the bases full. Jose Curpa lined a single to center softly to plate the game's first tally. The lead didn't last long as Andrew Czech stepped in with two outs in the third and Tyreque Reed on first and blasted his first homer of the season to right, giving Washington a 2-1 lead.

The home run was Czech's 63rd as a Wild Thing and pro, tying him with former teammate Hector Roa on the career homer charts for the most in franchise history. The tie will be broken on Czech's next home run and he'll become the new home run king.

The Wild Things added two in the fourth inning on two RBI doubles, two of three Washington doubles in the inning. Tommy Caufield, who had doubled in the second as well, led the fourth off with a double and scored a batter later on Ethan Wilder's double to the right field corner. Wilder finished with three hits and the RBI in the loss. Later in the inning, Caleb McNeely notched an RBI two bagger of his own, extending Washington's lead to 4-1. The ThunderBolts would score in the bottom of the fourth on a sac fly by Kyle Harbison that made it 4-2.

The Wild Things continued their scoring ways in the sixth, getting a tally on a fielder's choice off the lumber of Caufield that scored Czech. Christian Kuzemka hit a two-run shot off Kirby in the bottom half and made it 5-4 Washington. Kirby faced one more hitter before being lifted after 4.1 innings of six-hit, four-run ball. He walked five and fanned three.

Hector Garcia came on and worked 1.2 scoreless in his Wild Things debut and Washington grabbed another run in the sixth on an RBI broken-bat single by Jeff Liquori. The lead after the top of the eighth, in which Washington got two more on back-to-back RBI fielder's choices, one by Liquori and one by Reed, looked safe, but in the bottom of the frame, Michael Sandle launched a three-run homer to left off Jackson Hicks. Ryan Chasse had put up a zero in the seventh.

Heading to the ninth, Washington turned to Joelvis Del Rosario, who allowed a leadoff single before getting a pop up, then walked David Maberry and hit Winder Diaz to load the bases. After a strikeout of Curpa, Del Rosario got ahead 0-2 on Harbison before losing him to a bases-loaded, game-tying walk. Windy City won in the bottom of the 10th after Washington failed to move the tiebreaker runner from second in the top half. Kuzemka's third RBI of the night proved the difference.

Wilder finished with three hits and Liquori, Caufield and Czech added multi-hit efforts in defeat.

The two teams lock horns again tomorrow in the middle game of the opening weekend set at 7:05/6:05 p.m. CT. Righty Ivan Oviedo will make his Washington debut and be opposed by righty Aaron Evers for Windy City. You can watch the game free on the new Frontier League Network, powered by HTN, at frontierleaguetv.com. Opening weekend is free to watch with the code FLOPENING100. Fans can also listen on MixLR by searching @WashWildThings or going to washingtonwildthings.mixlr.com.

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Frontier League Stories from May 9, 2025


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