Lake Erie falls to Washington, 7-4
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Washington, PA. – The Lake Erie Crushers (14-22) entered Thursday’s contest trying to avoid the sweep in the finale of their nine game road trip. The Washington Wild Things (24-12) looked to keep their first place momentum with a win.
The Crushers trailed early in the game, and sought to comeback in the middle of the game with their own runs. The Wild Things kept piling on runs to keep the lead comfortable and win 7-4, sweeping the Crushers.
Washington, on the pursuit early with runs in the first three innings. In the first inning, Scotty Dubrule lined an RBI double to left field. Next inning in the second, a solo home run by Ramon Osuna to center field and an RBI single off the bat of Matt Phipps. The final run in the first three innings came from a sac-fly, Osuna for his second RBI hit it far enough to center field for Andrew Czech to score.
Lake Erie gained ground by cutting into the deficit in the fourth and sixth inning. In the fourth Jake Gitter grounded out to second base but Connor Owings scored. In the sixth, Danny Perez hit an RBI double in the gap in left-center.
Throughout the series the Wild Things pitching has been tremendous and it continued in the series finale. Rob Whalen received the start and dominated per usual in his 2022 campaign. Whalen lasted six innings, gave up two runs, zero walks, and struck out two. He improved his record to 7-1 and kept his ERA at a Frontier League best 2.24.
While up by two, the Wild Things added three insurance runs in the sixth and seventh inning. In the sixth, Nick Ward scored on an errant throw from the shortstop, the ball went out of ball, which allowed Ward to score. Right after, Wagner Lagrange doubled to left field, the fourth extra base hit by the Wild Things, Dubrule scored. In the seventh inning, Cole Branner scored on a throwing error by the catcher, Devon Fisher, the catcher, tried to throw out the runner stealing second but the throw was off-target.
The Crushers added two runs in the eighth inning. Gitter drilled a two run home run to left field, his second in the last five games.
Lukas Young came in the ninth to close the deal for the Wild Things. Young threw a scoreless ninth inning, recorded his sixth save and lowered his ERA to 1.37 as Washington won 7-4.
Lake Erie returns to the diamond on Friday, June 24th, it’s the start of a nine game homestand for the Crushers. Their first opponent will be the Evansville Otters for the weekend series. With Friday’s first pitch scheduled for 7:05 PM.
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