One move remaining

The Wild Things made one roster move Tuesday, placing right-handed pitcher Kurt Houck on the 7-day disabled list. Washington has 25 players on the active roster and must make one more move Wednesday to get down to the 24-player limit.

Ties in baseball?

The Wild Things and Lake Erie Crushers played to a 2-2 tie Saturday afternoon at All-Pro Freight Stadium in Avon, Ohio.

Much like the exhibition opener Friday night (won by Lake Erie 4-3) at Consol Energy Park, runs were hard to come by for the Wild Things but the pitching was very good. Washington used seven pitchers Saturday and they gave up only five hits with seven strikeouts.

The Wild Things led 2-1 in the eighth inning when Lake Erie used two singles, a hit batsman and wild pitch by Kurt Houck score to the tying run.

Mark McGonigle had two doubles among Washington's six hits.

Click here for the boxscore.

Camp notes: Thursday

The Wild Things spent five hours on the field Thursday, which included a four-inning intrasquad game, but the only significant news out of camp was that left-handed pitcher Jason Neitz has been put on the 60-day disabled list because of an arm injury. Neitz had a 7-7 record and 5.61 ERA in 20 games (19 starts) last season.

Four pitchers (18 are in camp) were used in the instrasquad game. The pitching lines were:

Zach Groh 2 2/3-5-5-0-0-3
Tim Smith 3-3-1-1-1-4
Sean Grieve 1-2-1-1-0-1
Kurt Houck 1-2-2-1-0-0

Groh and Smith each threw two shutout innings until the hitters caught on a little the second time through the order. The five runs Groh allowed were unearned because of two errors in the inning that also featured three home runs. First baseman Paul Chmiel and second baseman Michael Parker back-to-back homers, and two batters later shortstop Denny Duron homered.

Smith gave up a two-run homer to shortstop Pat Kinney.

Parker went 2-for-3 with a double and home run.

Other than the home runs, the only things that stood out were three errors by infielders and the pitchers gave up only one walk.

Rosenbaums! Get your Rosenbaums

The Wild Things will start the season leading the Frontier League in one category: most players named Rosenbaum.

Washington signed three players Wednesday, including catcher Chris Rosenbaum, who played in the Los Angeles Angels' organization. Also signed were former James Madison University pitcher Kurt Houck and ex-Lock Haven University infielder Matt Palko.

Rosenbaum, from Albany, N.Y., is the only one of the three with pro experience. All three are rookies by Frontier League standards.

Rosenbaum spent three seasons in the Angels' system, advancing to high-Class A Rancho Cucamongo, where he batted .319 last year but played in only 31 games. Rosenbaum played at the University of Tampa and was signed as a non-drafted free agent.

“Chris is coming off the best offensive year of his career," Washington manager Darin Everson said. "Throughout Chris' three-year career with the Angels, he has been known as a solid defensive catcher.”

Earlier this month, the Wild Things signed pitcher Zach Rosenbaum – apparently, no relation to the catcher.

Houck (6-6, 210) was a 2004 draft pick of the Atlanta Braves but did not sign, opting instead to attend James Madison. He had a solid career at JMU before missing the 2009 season because of an injury. He won 13 games for James Madison and posted a 7-2 record in 2008.

“Kurt is coming to us following a good stint in spring training in the Atlantic League,” Everson said. “We look forward to him reaching his potential as a reliable, hard-throwing reliever. We hope he can be an impact rookie."

Palko earned All-PSAC honors in 2009 after leading Lock Haven in home runs (11), triples (4), on-base percentage (.381) and walks (24). He batted .291 for the Bald eagles and played in the California Winter League.

“Matt comes highly recommended from many people who ran the California Winter League where he showed a solid bat and was very good defensively,” Everson said. “We look forward to having Matt be a solid option for us at third base and hope he can become an impact rookie for us this season.”

The Wild Things also dropped one player from the roster, former California University pitcher Rob Hedrick.