Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Crushers Fall to Titans

Lake Erie drops series opener to Ottawa

Box Link: https://frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/boxscores/20230714_khgx.xml

AVON, Ohio — In their first game back after the Frontier League All Star break, the Lake Erie Crushers dropped a tightly contested battle to the Ottawa Titans, 4-2 on Friday night at Mercy Health Stadium.

For the Crushers (22-30) the loss snapped a brief three game home winning streak, while the victory for Ottawa (26-26) was their eighth in their last 11 games.

Starting pitching was strong for both sides, as JD Hammer (2-2) looked pretty sharp for the Crushers, allowing just a trio of runs on five hits over seven innings. His counterpart, Zac Westcott, allowed only two runs on seven hits while fanning out over seven frames.

Former Crusher Sicnarf Loopstok did all of the damage for Ottawa, driving in all four of their runs. He went to work early, belting a two run homer to left in the top of the first inning to give the Titans a 2-0 edge.

Lake Erie tied the game in the bottom of the fifth. Jackson Pritchard and Josh Rego started the inning with singles and both came around to score later in the inning as Jack Harris belted a game tying two run double down the line in right.

The game didnt stay tied very long, as Loopstok struck again for the Titans in the top of the sixth inning. He belted his second homer of the game, a solo shot to left which was his seventh of the season to give the Titans the lead again.

Loopstok drove in the final run of the contest in the top of the eighth inning, on a sacrifice fly that plated Jason Dicochea.

Hammer took the loss for the Crushers despite the strong effort, which marked his longest outing of the season. Westcott came away with the win for the Titans and Trevor Clifton (3) tossed a scoreless ninth to pick up the save.

Zach Racusin provided Lake Erie’s lone multi-hit game, going 2-for-4 with a pair of singles.

The Crushers will continue their series with the Titans on Saturday night at Mercy Health Stadium. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:05 PM.