Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Lake Erie comes from behind to defeat Joliet 5-3

Box Link: http://frontier.bbstats.pointstreak.com/boxscoretext.html?gameid=551768

AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers rallied in the final four innings of Sunday afternoon’s contest at Mercy Health Stadium to come from behind for the second straight game, defeating the Joliet Slammers, 5-3.

The victory for the Crushers (7-9) gives them three consecutive series victories, while the loss for the Slammers (7-9) was their third in their last four games.

Lake Erie starting pitcher Tyson Cronin tossed three scoreless innings before he really began to struggle in the fourth. He issued three walks in the inning, which came back to haunt him. Brian Parreira started the inning with a free pass, and came around to score on a double off the bat of Patrick Causa. Causa came home two batters later on Clayton Harp’s RBI single to right and Tyler Depreta-Johnson brought the final run of the inning home on a sacrifice fly.

However, after Cronin’s exit in the fourth, the Lake Erie bullpen took over and held the Slammers offense in check. The combination of Sam Curtis, Aaron Glickstein and JT Perez (1-0) combined to toss 5 2/3 innings of scoreless, one hit relief.

The Crusher offense was quiet for the first five innings until they caught fire with back-to-back homers to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth. Steven Kraft reached on a five pitch walk to start the inning, and came home two batters later on Trevor Achenbach’s two-run homer to left, his third of the season. Moments later, the Crushers tied the game as Brody Wofford hit a solo shot to right, his first of the season.

Just as they had done the night before, the Crushers took the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. Achenbach was hit by a pitch with one out and he eventually came around to score on a bases loaded walk issued to Steve Passatempo. General McArthur followed with an infield single to score Bryan DeLaRosa giving the Crushers a 5-3 lead that they would not surrender.

Perez retired all six batters he faced and fanned four batters to pick up the victory, while Riley Otteson (0-1) took the loss in his Slammers debut. He had to leave the game with an undisclosed arm injury, and only faced four batters.

Achenbach paced the Crusher offense with a three hit performance, going 3-for-3 and reached base in all four plate appearances. Kraft reached twice and has now reached in 12 straight games, and McAruthur extended his on base streak to eight games with his single in the eighth inning.

The Crushers are off on Monday but will start a four game series with the Southern Illinois Miners, which begins with a double header on Tuesday at Mercy Health Stadium. Lefty Ryan Feierabend (0-2, 9.26) will start game one for the Crushers and right-hander Robby Rowland (2-0, 3.00) will start the second game. Game one is scheduled for a 5:05 PM first pitch.