Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Crushers Snap Five Game Slide

Lake Erie Crushers cap home stand with a 5-1 victory

Box Link: https://frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2021-22/boxscores/20220703_k5sj.xml

AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers brought their nine game home stand to a close on a winning note in front of 3,612 fans at Mercy Health Stadium on Sunday evening, as they defeated the Washington Wild Things, 5-1.

The Crushers (18-27) snapped a five game losing streak with the win, which was their first in six tries against the Wild Things (30-15), who saw their five game winning streak come to an end.

Starting pitching dominated the first four innings of the game as Joseph Sgambelluri (5-3) dueled with Kobe Foster (1-1). The two pitchers kept both offenses off the board and allowed six hits combined over the first four and a half innings.

Lake Erie snapped the scoreless tie with a trio of runs in the bottom of the fifth. Kemuel Thomas-Rivero started the inning with a double down the line in left. Sean Cheely brought him home moments later on a RBI double to left. Jackson Valera followed Cheely with a run scoring single to right to give the Crushers a 2-0 lead. Valera advanced to second on Kokko Figueiredo’s single and advanced to third on Connor Owings’s fly out to right. Foster’s errant throw on a pickoff attempt at first base ended up in foul territory, and allowed Valera to score from third.

The Crushers added another run in the sixth inning when Bryan DeLaRosa doubled to left field to score Austin White. Cheely and Valera began the seventh inning with back-to-back base hits. Figueiredo moved them up on a sacrifice bunt and Cheely scored on a wild pitch.

The Wild Things scored in the top of the seventh inning. Sgambelluri issued three walks in the inning to load the bases for Cole Brannen, who reached on an infield single to plate Washington’s only run.

Sgambelluri turned in one of his finest starts of the season, allowing just a run on four hits while striking out eight batters over six and two-thirds to pick up the victory. Sam Curtis and Alexis Rivero tossed scoreless innings in relief, while Gleyvin Pineda worked a third of an inning out of the bullpen as well. Foster took the loss after allowing four runs, three earned on nine hits over six innings of work.

Five Crushers hit safely multiple times on the night. Valera and Figueiredo led the way at the top of the order, turning in two hits each. The bottom third of the order, Thomas-Rivero, DeLaRosa and Cheely all hit safely twice as well. Connor Owings singled to extend his hitting streak to 10 games.

The Crushers are off on Monday but will hit the road to begin a three game series on Tuesday evening against the Florence Y’alls. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:32 PM.