Wild Things' bats erupt as Lee goes the distance - WTRF 7 News Sports Weather - Wheeling Steubenville

An offensive explosion ensued Tuesday evening at CONSOL Energy Park as the Washington Wild Things, rolled to a 12-4 victory over the Joliet Slammers.

Washington fell behind early and then broke out the bats as CONSOL Energy Park was turned into a launching pad. Both the Wild Things and Slammers bats broke loose for a combined five home runs.

It was a trio of solo shots that brought the Wild Things back from their deficit and propelled them ahead of the Slammers

Early on, Washington dug itself a hole by letting the Slammers get out to a 3-0 lead after three innings.

Joliet plated two runs in the second on a two-run home run by Kyle Maunus and another an inning later on a solo homer by Abel Nieves.

That's when Washington's bats caught fire, beginning with A.J. Nunziato who led off the fourth with a solo blast to right field.

Gus Benusa followed with a triple down the right field line and then scored one batter later when Mark Samuelson grounded out to shortstop Brad Netzel. Rick Devereaux continued the onslaught with his third homer of the season to knot things up at three.

The Things weren't done there, continuing with offense by adding two more runs in the fifth.

Another leadoff homer, this time from Brad Agustin brought Washington all the way back and gave them a 4-3 lead.

Samuelson's hot streak continued with another RBI single later in the fifth to score Andrew Heck and make it 5-3.

An inning later, the Wild Things made it 7-3 on an RBI single by Andrew Heck that scored Jovan Rosa and Agustin.

Five more runs, all of them with two outs, crossed the plate in the bottom of the seventh pushing the Things' lead to 11-3. Jovan Rosa drove in three with a bases clearing double down the third base line and Agustin scored Rosa from second with a double to right.

Heck added another run with an RBI single to make it 12-3.

Alone RBI single in the ninth by Eric McGee resulted in the final score being 12-4.

Allof that scoring gave starter Gary Lee plenty of breathing room, who lost in the offensive out burst pitched his second complete game of the season. Lee gave up the three runs early, but ended the night giving up four runs on nine hits in nine innings, and didn't walk a single batter.