Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Lake Erie sweeps Windy City

Box Link: http://pointstreak.com/baseball/boxscoretext.html?gameid=542516

AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers used good pitching and timely hitting on Sunday night at Mercy Health Stadium to complete a weekend sweep of the Windy City Thunderbolts, as they came away with a 5-2 victory.

Lake Erie (19-16) is has now won three in a row for the fourth time this season, and they are 6-0 on the year against Windy City (11-23) who saw their road record fall to 3-12 with the loss. The victory also launched the Lake Erie Crushers into a tie for first place with the Schaumburg Boomers in the Frontier League’s Central Division.

The Crushers used a pair of solo homers to take an early lead. In the bottom of the second inning, Steve Passatempo smacked his first homer of the season, an opposite field shot that went over the wall in right. One inning later, General McArthur also hit his first long ball of the season as he belted a solo homer over the wall in left to give Lake Erie a 2-0 lead.

The Thunderbolts tied the game with a pair of runs on three hits in the top of the fifth. Jack Strunc started the inning with an infield single. Brynn Martinez was hit by a pitch before Jake Hirababyashi then singled to center to load the bases. Zach Racusin followed  with a single to center to score Strunc and Dan Robinson tied the game with a sacrifice fly to right to score Martinez, tying the game at 2-2.

Lake Erie would regain the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. Passatempo reached with two outs after he was hit by a pitch, and Zack Gray followed with a single to keep the inning alive. Eric Callahan followed with a clutch, two-run single to left, snapping the 2-2 tie.

The Crushers added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning. Bryan DeLaRosa began the inning with his second single of the night and he came around to score on another two out hit, as Gray delivered his second hit of the game, a RBI single to right.

Aaron Glickstein made his first start of the season for the Crushers and tossed four scoreless innings while allowing just a hit and struck out three. Ean Walda (2-0) picked up the victory for the Crushers after allowing a pair of runs on four hits over two innings of work. Daniel Kight (4) worked two scoreless innings to grab the save. Windy City’s Jake Fisher (2-3) took the loss after allowing four runs on eight hits over six innings.

Three Crushers hit safely multiple times on the night. DeLaRosa went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles, while Passatempo went 2-for-3, reaching three times and finished the home stand with seven hits. Gray reached safely in all four plate appearances, going 2-for-2 with a pair of singles.

Lake Erie is off on Monday but will hit the road to start a six game trip on Tuesday night, when they’ll begin a three game series with the Florence Y’all’s. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:32 PM.