Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Crushers Silenced in Series Finale

Lake Erie suffers a 6-0 setback at home to Florence

Box Link: https://frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2021-22/boxscores/20220814_bot2.xml

AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers saw their bid at a sweep upended at Mercy Health Stadium on Sunday night, as they suffered a 6-0 loss to The Florence Y’alls.

The loss for the Crushers (38-40) snapped a four game winning streak, while the victory for the Y’alls (32-45) brought a six game losing streak to an end.

Quite like the first two games of the series, the starting pitching was very good on both sides. Lake Erie lefty Gunnar Kines (3-5) retired the first 10 batters he faced and took a no-hitter into the sixth inning where Florence scored the game’s first run.

While Kines was dealing for the Crushers, Edgar Martinez (5-5) was every bit as good, if not better. He kept the Crushers off the board through six strong innings and allowed just four hits while striking out seven batters.

The Y’alls scored the game’s first run in the top of the sixth. Cooper Edwards started the inning with Florence’s first hit of the game, a single to center field. Rodney Tennie moved him to second on a sacrifice bunt and he came around to score on Brennan Price’s two out double down the line in left.

Florence then scored four runs, three with two out in the seventh inning to pull away. Anthony Brocato drew a walk to start the inning and he scored on Ray Zuberer’s RBI single to center, which was enough to knock Kines out of the game. Tennie struck again for the Y’alls later in the inning, as he delivered a two run double down the line in left with two outs to score Zuberer and Ethan Stern. Tennie scored later in the inning on an errant throw from catcher Casey Combs.

The Y’alls added one more big two out hit to provide their final run of the game in the top of the ninth. Axel Johnson walked with one out and made his way to second on Tennie’s two out hit to right before Luis Pintor brought him home on a RBI single to right.

Kines took the loss for the Crushers after allowing three runs on three hits while striking out seven. The Crusher trio of Kines, Elliot Carney and Paul Kasanovich combined to strike out the Y’alls 15 times on the night. Martinez picked up the win after keeping the Crushers off the board through six innings of work.

Connor Owings and London Green led the way for Lake Erie offensively, as they both went 2-for-4 on the night. Kokko Figueiredo reached on a two out walk in the bottom of the second inning to extend his on base streak to 14 games.

The Crushers are off on Monday but will begin a three game series with the Schaumburg Boomers at Mercy Health Stadium on Tuesday night. Right-hander Joseph Sgambelluri (7-5, 3.72) will get the start for the Crushers and the first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM.