Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Lake Erie falls to Gateway 8-2.

Box Link: https://frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2021-22/boxscores/20220904_q0p3.xml

Sauget, Ill.- The Lake Erie Crushers and the majority of the Frontier League entered Sunday night with one final game to play. Although there wasn’t much for the Crushers to play for, Lake Erie was looking to avoid the seep against the Gateway Grizzlies. 

In a series that has been all struggles for the Crushers, those continued once more on Sunday. The offense couldn’t find their groove while the Grizzlies used a strong starting pitching performance and key hits in the 8-2 win. 

Lake Erie started the game right with scoring a run in the first inning. Jackson Valera hit a solo home run to left field. 

The Grizzlies used three innings to score all eight of their runs. Two runs came in the first inning. Kevin Krause hit a two run home run to left field. Both offenses were quiet until the fifth inning, Gateway scored two more runs. Abdiel Diaz hit a solo home run to right field and Zach Racusin hit an RBI single up the middle to extend the lead to three. An inning later, Gateway kept their foot on the gas pedal with four more runs in the sixth inning. An RBI groundout for Diaz, Trevor Achenbach scored on a passed ball, and Isaac Benard hit a two run home run to right field. 

It was another strong starting pitching performance for the Gateway Grizzlies. This time it was Carson LaRue who pitched himself a quality start. He threw six innings, allowed one run on five hits, walked one, and struck out six. 

Down 8-1 going into the eighth inning, Lake Erie would be able to only score one more run in the loss. Kenen Irizarry hit a solo home run to right field, that’d be the final run for the Lake Erie Crushers in 2022.