August 12, 2023
Box Score Link: https://www.frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/boxscores/20230812_cry4.xml
FLORENCE, KY – The Lake Erie Crushers have accomplished the feat of winning a series on the road for the first time this year after taking down the Florence Y’alls 12-5.
In a game that featured four long balls to the Crushers (31-46) and three to the Y’alls (32-45), it was a true slugfest that favored the Lake Erie offense. For the second night in a row the Grapes finished with double-digit hits, and continue to roll as this has been their best stretch of baseball in quite some time.
The Crushers scored in the first four innings of play, jumping on the Y’alls in the first thanks to a two-run shot off the bat of Josh Rego. In the second inning, an RBI single from Jiandido Tromp and then a bases-clearing double from Scout Knotts blew the doors open. Knotts later scored on a wild pitch and it was 7-0 Lake Erie.
John Tuccillo added on in the third with a homer to left-center. In the bottom of the frame, the Y’alls answered on a home run of their own from Jeremiah Burks.
The offense for the Crushers wasn’t done yet. They scored two more in the fourth inning off a pair of solo blasts from Scout Knotts and Hector Roa. The answer from the Y’alls wasn’t as strong, but they hit another big fly in the bottom of the frame, this time from Zade Richardson.
An attempt at a comeback was short-lived for Florence. In the fifth inning, Brennan Price hit a three-run missile over the wall to make it 10-5. That would be all the Y’alls could get tonight though, as the Lake Erie pitching shut them down from then on.
Sean Cheely scored on an error from Ed Johnson in the eighth inning after coming in for a Collin Mathews hit-by-pitch. In the ninth Lake Erie finalized the scoring with an RBI single from Roa.
The Crushers totaled 12 runs on 10 hits and had seven men pick up a base hit. Knotts led the way with three and Roa followed with a pair. Knotts drove in four and scored thrice tonight. Rego and Roa had multi-RBI nights and the tandem of Racusin plus Tuccillo was each able to score twice.
The winning pitcher was Stephen Chamblee (3-5) who made his Lake Erie debut. The right-hander looked strong through the first two innings, but his biggest blunder came in the fifth frame after allowing the three-run bomb. Chamblee’s final line consists of 5.0 innings pitched allowing as many runs on six hits with no walks and four strikeouts.
He was backed by the bullpen arms of Perry Bewley and Darien Ragins. Out of the six outs recorded by Bewley, he racked out five via the K. Ragins came in for the final two innings and did not give up a hit while striking out three.
The loss was handed to Edgar Martinez (7-7) who had a short and rough night at the office going for just 3.0 innings while giving up eight runs on six hits with four walks and one punchout.
The Lake Erie Crushers will look to keep this hot streak going with a series sweep tomorrow versus the Y’alls. The first pitch is at 1:07 PM ET.
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