Lake Erie defeated Florence, 4-3
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Florence, KY. – The bottom two teams of the West Division faced off on Tuesday night in the start of a three game set in Florence. Lake Erie (19-27) coming off a win on Sunday that ended their five game losing streak faced off against the Florence Y’alls (17-28) who came in with a seven game losing streak.
The Y’alls led early but it was Kokko Figueiredo and the home run ball that led the crushers to a big ninth inning win, 4-3.
Florence’s first two runs came in the first inning. It was a two RBI single to left field by Anthony Brocato.
Lake Erie responded with separate runs in the second and fourth inning. In the second, Austin White reached due to an error by the second baseball, that allowed Figueiredo to score for the Crushers first run. Later in the fourth inning, Figueiredo followed with a solo home run to give Lake Erie their first lead.
Half inning later, Brocato lifted the Y’alls offense once more with a solo home run, his third RBI of the game, tying the game.
It was a pitcher’s duel through the game between both starters. Julio Vivas for Lake Erie turned in one of his better innings, he went six innings, allowed six hits, three runs, and six strikeouts. Jake McMahill filled the strikeout board with 11 of them, he walked zero batters, gave up five hits and two runs in seven innings.
Both teams tied going into the later innings, recent acquisition by the Crushers, Paul Kasonovich appeared for the second time in the last week and excelled for Lake Erie. The Virginia Cavalier threw two innings (7th and 8th inning), allowed one hit, and struck out three keeping the game tied.
Joe Dougherty for the Y’alls came in the ninth for a non-save situation. Figueiredo led the ninth off with a solo home run, his second home run of the night, giving the Crushers the lead. Lake Erie added an insurance with one out, a Sean Cheely RBI single to right field added one more to the Crushers lead.
Alexis Rivero called out of the bullpen in the bottom of the ninth to convert his fifth save opportunity of the year. The Y’alls had the tying run on the second with one out but left him stranded as Rivero successfully closed the door giving Lake Erie their second straight win.
The two teams will meet once more on Wednesday, July 7th in Florence, KY. First pitch is scheduled for 6:31 PM and you can view the game on FloSports.
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