Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Crushers Swept By Valley Cats

Crushers lose early lead in 9-5 loss to Tri-City

Box Link: https://frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/boxscores/20230730_4yif.xml

AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers lost an early lead to Tri-City on Sunday afternoon at Mercy Health Stadium as they surrendered six runs in the final two innings and were swept by the Valley Cats in a 9-5 loss.

The loss for Crushers (27-39) marks the third time they’ve been swept at home this season while the win for the Valley Cats (42-24) was their seventh in a row.

Tri-City plated a run in the first inning for the third straight game to stage an early lead. Cito Culver reached on a one out single to right and came around to score on Jakob Goldfarb’s RBI double to right center.

Lake Erie came right back with a run of their own to tie the game in the bottom of the first. Walks were issued to Jiandido Tromp and Zach Racusin to start the inning and Jack Harris drove Tromp home with a run scoring double down the line in left.

The Crushers took the lead in the bottom of the second. Josh Rego started the inning with a single to left and scored the go ahead run later in the inning on Tromp’s RBI base hit to left.

Lake Erie’s offense went to work again in the third, adding to their lead after Harris tripled with one out to center and scored on Kemuel Thomas-Rivera’s RBI groundout. The added another run on the fourth inning, when Tromp stroked his second RBI single of the contest to plate Rego.

Jaxon Hallmark’s sacrifice fly scored Ian Walters in the fourth and the added another run in the fifth when Lamar Briggs walked with the bases loaded.

Down 4-3 heading into the seventh inning, the Valley Cats sent eight batters to the plate and scored three times on three hits to take the lead. Goldfarb started the inning with a double and Kelly followed with a bunt single. Walters walked to load the bases and Briggs brought Goldfarb home on a sacrifice fly. Oscar Campos highlighted the inning with a two out, pinch hit, two run single to left, giving Tri-City a 6-4 lead.

The Valley Cats added to that with a pair of runs in the eighth inning, and another in the ninth to remove any doubt.

Lake Erie pushed one final run across in the bottom of the eighth. Harris’s third hit of the game was a one out double to left and he scored on Thomas-Rivera’s RBI single to left.

Dwayne Marshall (7-2) picked up the win in relief for Tri-City. He tossed five innings out of the bullpen and allowed just a run on three hits with a pair of strikeouts. Darrien Ragins (2-4) took the loss after allowing three runs on three hits in the seventh.

Three Crushers hit safely multiple times on the day. Harris led the charge, going 3-for-4 with a trio of extra base hits, giving him five hits in the series. Tromp went 2-for-4 with a run scored and two runs driven in. He reached in every game on the homestand and hit safely nine times during that six game stretch. Rego turned in a two hit performance as well, going 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored.

The Crushers are off on Monday, but will begin a three game series on the road against the Windy City Thunderbolts on Tuesday night. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:35 PM.