Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Crushers Drop Rubber Match

Lake Eries ends their homestand with a 6-5 setback to Evansville

Box Link:  https://frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2021-22/boxscores/20220804_h6ol.xml

AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers suffered their second one run defeat of the series against the Evansville Otters at Mercy Health Stadium on Thursday night, dropping the rubber match, 6-5.

The loss for the Crushers (33-36) was their third in their last four games, while the win for the Otters (39-29) was their seventh in 12 games against the Crushers this season.

Lake Erie capitalized on a two out error to score the game’s first run in the bottom of the first inning. Jackson Valera reached on a one out double, and he came around to score with two outs when Kenen Irizarry reached on Tyler Doanes’s fielding error at second base.

The Otters were able to respond with a pair of runs in the top of the third. George Callil was hit by a pitch with one out and made his way to third on Zach Biermann’s two out double to right. Jeffrey Baez followed with a two run single to left to give the Otters a 2-1 lead.

It didn’t take the Crushers long to answer, as they sent eight batters to the plate and scored a pair of runs on four hits in the bottom of the third to regain the lead. Connor Owings started the inning with a solo homer to left, his 13th of the season. Kemuel Thomas-Rivera reached on a one out single, stole second base and came around to score on Irizarry’s RBI single to right.

Evansville used the long ball to regain the lead in the top of the fourth. JR Davis walked to start the inning and advanced to second on Steven Sensley’s base hit, which setup Elijah MacNamee’s three run homer to left, his seventh of the season.

The Otters added one more run in the top of the sixth inning. Justin Felix started the inning with a double to left and came around to score on Miles Gordon’s RBI single to right.

Lake Erie battled back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Irizarry began the inning with a walk and advanced to third on Kokko Figueiredo’s double to left. Austin White brought Irizarry home on a RBI groundout and Sean Cheely followed with a run scoring single to center. After Bryan DeLaRosa walked to put runners on first and second, Augie Gallardo got out of the inning by getting Jake Gitter to ground into an inning ending 1-6-3 double play.

Austin Gossmann (7-3) picked up the win for Evansville after allowing three runs, two earned on seven hits through five innings. Logan Sawyer (17) picked up the save after tossing a perfect ninth inning. Joseph Sgambelluri (6-5) took the loss after allowing five runs on six hits and struck out five over four and two-thirds.

Figueiredo and Cheely were the only Crushers to hit safely twice on the night. Figueiredo went 2-for-3 with a walk and Cheely went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles. Irizarry and Thomas-Rivera also reached safely multiple times. Irizarry has now reached in nine straight games while Thomas-Rivera’s on base streak was extended to seven.

The Crushers will begin a six game road trip on Friday night. The trip starts with a three game series against the first place Washington Wild Things. Lefty Kyle Seebach is scheduled to start for the Crushers and the first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM.