Fabulous Home Finale
Crushers Best Boomers in their 2019 Home Finale
AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers, presented by Mercy Health, endured a back-and-forth battle with the Schaumburg Boomers on Sunday afternoon at Sprenger Stadium, as they homered three times and won their 2019 home finale in 6-4 victory over the Boomers.
The victory for the Crushers (50-40) brings their magic number down to one to win their first divisional crown since 2013. The loss for the Boomers (44-46) was their third in their last four games.
Homers from Jake Vieth, Dre Hubbard and Emmanuel Marrero paced the Crusher offense, while Augie Gallardo (5-2) was terrific in relief once again, taking the Crushers to the finish line.
Vieth launched his 16th homer of the season in the bottom of the second inning, a solo shot over the wall in right field to give the Crushers an early 1-0 lead.
Schaumburg responded quickly, as they took the lead with a pair of runs in the top of the third. Luis Roman belted a one out double, and came around to score two batters later on Quincy Nieporte’s RBI double to center. Matt Rose followed with a RBI groundout to score Jack Parenty, giving the Boomers a 2-1 lead.
Lake Erie answered in the next half inning, tying the game in the bottom of the third. Aaron Hill walked to start the inning, advanced to third on Logan Farrar’s double to the gap in right center, and Dale Burdick brought him home on a sacrifice fly out to left.
Roman struck for the Boomers again in the top of the fourth inning to give Schaumburg a 3-2 lead. Alex Polston was on first base with two outs, when Roman smashed a double to the gap in left center. Polston scored all the way from first on the two bagger to give the Boomers the lead again. They added to that lead in the top of the fifth, when Matt Rose belted a solo homer to left, his 14th of the season.
The Crushers used another long ball to tie the game in the bottom of the fifth inning. Zach Racusin started the inning with a single to center, and Dre Hubbard came on to pinch hit for Aaron Hill. Hubbard belted Payton Lobdell’s 1-2 pitch down the left field line and over the wall for a two run homer, his second of the year.
Another homer put the Crushers in the driver’s seat in the bottom of the seventh, this time for good. Hubbard reached on a one out single off former Crusher Connor Reed (4-8) and Emmanuel Marrero followed with a two run homer to left, his 15th of the season to give the Crushers a 6-4 advantage, and they never looked back.
Gallardo picked up the victory for the Crushers, tossing four scoreless innings of two hit relief and struck out three to pick up the victory. Reed took the loss for the Boomers after allowing two runs on five hits over 2.1 innings of work.
Four Crushers hit safely multiple times on the afternoon. Hubbard, Marrero and Farrar hit safely twice, and Vieth led the way with a three hit performance, going 3-for-4, coming a triple away from hitting for the cycle.
The Crushers are off on Monday, but will begin their final road trip of the season on Tuesday night. The trip begins with a three game series against the Southern Illinois Miners. The pitching matchup has not been announced, and the first pitch is scheduled for 7:35 p.m.
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