Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Crushers Snap Home Losing Streak

Lake Erie snaps a five game slide at home in 4-1 win over Miners

Box Link: https://frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/boxscores/20230607_74p0.xml

AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers scored their first home victory since May 20 on Wednesday evening at Mercy Health Stadium, with a 4-1 victory over the Sussex County Miners.

The victory for the Crushers (10-13) snapped a five game home losing streak, while the loss for the Miners (14-7) was just their third in their last 11 games.

Starting pitching was strong once again, as it was in the first game of the series on Tuesday night. Lake Erie’s Yasel Santana (1-1) worked himself out of trouble a few times on the night, and kept the Miners off the board through five innings. Sussex County’s Alex Hart (2-2) pitched well through five innings before running out of gas in the sixth where he surrendered three runs.

Lake Erie fired the first shot in the bottom of the second. On a night with a steady breeze blowing in, Jack Harris belted a solo shot over the wall in left, his second homer of the season to give Lake Erie a 1-0 lead.

The Crushers sent all nine batters to the plate in the bottom of the sixth inning where they scored three times on four hits to pull away. The inning started with back-to-back singles from Todd Isaacs Jr. and Santiago Chirino. After Hart struck out the next two batters, Jiandido Tromp reached on a single to score Isaacs. Hart walked Jarrod Watkins to load the bases before issuing a bases loaded walk to Mike Blanke which scored Chirino. Sean Cheely capped the really with a RBI single to left to score Tromp.

Sussex County scored their lone run in the top of the seventh. Edwin Mateo led the inning off with a double and advanced to third on a groundout. Gavin Stupienski brought him home with a RBI groundout.

Santana scored his first victory of the season for the Crushers. He tossed five scoreless innings on a night where he allowed only two hits, while walking six and fanning five batters. Brayden Bonner tossed a scoreless sixth inning in relief for the Crushers, while Trevor Kuncl allowed just a run on a hit in his lone inning of work. Sam Curtis pitched a scoreless eighth inning in relief before Alexis Rivero (2) picked up the save after tossing a scoreless ninth inning.

Isaacs Jr. led the way for Lake Erie offensively, going 3-for-4 on the night with a trio of singles. Harris’s homer in the second inning extended his hitting streak to six games, and Tromp’s base hit in the sixth inning extended his on base streak to 14 games.

The Crushers will finish their series with the Sussex County Miners at Mercy Health Stadium on Thursday night. Right-hander Matt Mulhearn (2-1, 2.25) will start for the Crushers and the Miners will counter with lefty Tyler Thornton (0-0, 2.75). The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM.