Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Lake Erie offense breaks out in win over Miners

Box Link: http://frontier.bbstats.pointstreak.com/boxscoretext.html?gameid=542558

AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers hit safely eight times on Thursday night at Mercy Health Stadium, and six of those hits went for extra bases as the Crushers took the series finale from the Southern Illinois Miners, 8-1.

Lake Erie (9-11) has now won their series finale four times in a row, while the loss for the Miners (8-12) was just their third on the road in eight games against the Central Division.

The Crushers had just two runs on five hits over the first three games of the series, before scoring eight times on eight knocks on Thursday night.

Southern Illinois fired the first shot in the top of the second inning. Jared Mang and Nolan Earley smacked back-to-back singles to center to start the inning. Carson Bartels laid a sacrifice bunt down to move them both over before Ryan Stacy’s sacrifice fly to left brought Mang home.

The Crushers were kept off the board for the first three innings, until they used the long ball to take the lead in the bottom of the fourth. Trevor Achenbach walked with one out and made his way to third on a two out single to center from Connor Oliver. That setup a colossal three-run homer to right off the bat of Brody Wofford, his second of the season, giving the Crushers a 3-1 advantage.

Lake Erie benefitted from a pair of defensive miscues in the bottom of the fifth inning, and really made them sting as Trevor Achenbach smashed a clutch, two-run double to the gap in left center field with two outs to plate Zack Gray and Isaac Benard.

A trio of doubles paced the Crushers in the bottom of the eighth, as they plated three more runs to pull away. Benard started the inning with a two-bagger to right and he scored with Achenbach later in the inning on Wofford’s two-run double down the line in left. Johnny Knight followed with his first professional hit, a run scoring double to right field to bring in the game’s final run.

Paul Hall Jr. (1-1) scored the victory for Lake Erie, allowing a run on five hits while fanning six batters over five innings of work. The combination of Aaron Glickstein, JT Perez and Daniel Kight tossed four scoreless innings of three hit relief. Trent Johnson (0-2) took the loss after allowing five runs, three earned on four hits with six strikeouts through five innings.

Wofford led the way for Lake Erie offensively, going 2-for-4 on the night and drove in five runs. Oliver turned in a multi-hit game as well, going 2-for-4 with a pair of singles.

The Crushers will hit the road on Friday night as they travel to Washington, Pennsylvania to take on the Washington Wild Things. Right-hander Tyson Cronin (0-0, 7.94) will get the start for the Crushers and the first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM.