Boomers win second straight road game to open season

The Schaumburg Boomers moved to 2-0 on the young season by coming from behind in nearly identical fashion for a second straight night to knock off the Washington Wild Things 6-3 on the road Saturday.

Washington jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first against Schaumburg starter Cole Cook, the 2023 Frontier League Pitcher of the Year who was making his debut with the team. Cook settled down and went on to strike out nine in five innings as the Boomers slowly pecked away at the deficit, gathering a no-decision in his first start.

Ryan McCarthy led off the top of the second with his second homer in as many games, putting the Boomers on the board. Tyler Depreta-Johnson opened the third inning with a triple and brought the Boomers within 3-2 when Alec Craig knocked him home with a groundout.

The score remained 3-2 until the eighth when the Boomers broke through with four runs to jump ahead. Depreta-Johnson led the charge again with a leadoff double and came in to tie the score on Chase Dawson’s first triple of the year.

Dawson is the team’s all-time leader in triples. With the bases loaded following a pair of hit batters, Seth Gray handed the Boomers the lead at 4-3 with an RBI single. McCarthy would add a 2-run single in the inning as the Boomers sent nine to the plate.

Matt Helwig gathered the win in relief with an impressive debut. Helwig faced just six batters over two innings and struck out three. Jake Joyce picked up his second save in as many nights by working the ninth and leaving the bases loaded. Dallas Woolfolk also debuted, fanning two in the sixth.

The pitching staff struck out 15 and has recorded 26 punchouts in the first two games of the season. McCarthy tallied three hits and drove home three as the bats strung together 11 hits in the contest. Depreta-Johnson, Dawson and Brett Milazzo all logged a pair.