Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Crusher Pitching Rolls in Win Over Florence

Lake Erie pitchers dominate Y’alls for the second straight night

Box Link: https://frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2021-22/boxscores/20220813_lhq6.xml

AVON, Ohio — One night after shutting out the Florence Y’alls in their series opener on Friday night, the Lake Erie Crushers held Florence to just a run on five hits in a 5-1 victory on Saturday night at Mercy Health Stadium.

Lake Erie (38-39) has now won four in a row, while the loss for Florence (31-45) was their sixth in a row.

Crusher pitchers have only allowed a run on nine hits over the first 18 inning of the series, with Florence’s lone run coming on a bases loaded walk. Jay Alvarez (5-4) stole the show for the Crushers, tossing six scoreless innings in a winning effort, while allowing only four hits and he struck out six.

The Crushers fired the first shot for the second night in a row. London Green started the inning with a five pitch free pass before stealing second base and he scored the game’s first run on Kokko Figueiredo’s RBI single to right.

Lake Erie capitalized on a couple of errors and scored three times on a pair of hits in the bottom of the fourth to take a 4-0 lead. Kemuel Thomas-Rivera started the inning with a base hit, and made his way to third after Austin White reached on Bryant Flete’s fielding error at third. London Green followed with a two run single to left. Green came around to score the final run of the inning after Kenen Irizarry reached on a throwing error by the second baseman Ethan Stern.

After keeping the Y’alls off the board for the first 15 innings of the series, the Crushers surrendered the first run of the series in the top of the seventh. Stern was hit by a pitch to start the inning and eventually came around to score when Alberti Chavez walked with the bases loaded.

Lake Erie plated their final run in the bottom of the seventh. Casey Combs started the inning with an infield single. A balk put him on second and he scored on Connor Owings’s RBI single to center.

Sam Curtis and Gleyvin Pineda both tossed scoreless innings for the Crushers, while Trevor Kuncl worked the Crushers out of a bases loaded jam in the seventh. Jonaiker Villalobos (5-6) suffered the loss for the Y’alls after allowing four runs, two earned on four hits and struck out three over five innings.

Owings and Valera paced the Crushers offensively, as they both went 2-for-4 on the night. Irizarry reached on a single in the eighth inning to extend his on base streak to 17 games, while Figueiredo’s RBI single extended his on base streak to 13 games.

The Crushers will finish their series with Florence at Mercy Health Stadium on Sunday evening. Lefty Gunnar Kines will get the start for the Crushers and the first pitch is scheduled for 5:35 PM.