Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Huge Home Win

Crushers shut Otters out in front of a packed house

Box Link: https://frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/boxscores/20230703_jfh8.xml

AVON, Ohio — In front of their largest home crowd of the season, the Lake Erie Crushers held the Evansville Otters to just four hits on Monday night with 4,047 fans in attendance at Mercy Health Stadium in a 6-0 victory.

For the Crushers (19-27) the shutout was their sixth of the season, while the loss for the Otters (26-19) marked the fifth time that they’ve been shutout this year.

The combination of Kyle Seebach (2-3), Thomas Bruss, Darrien Ragins and Brayden Bonner put together the four hit shutout. Seebach turned in his finest start of the season, tossing 5.2 scoreless innings while allowing just four hits and struck out seven batters with just one free pass. Bruss tossed an inning and a third, retiring all four batters he faced. Ragins and Bonner each tossed scoreless innings of no-hit relief as well.

Lake Erie plated their first run in the bottom of the first inning. Todd Isaacs Jr. began the inning with an infield single. Jack Harris followed with a walk and Jarrod Watkins laid a sacrifice bunt down to move them both over. Kemuel Thomas-Rivera brought Isaacs home moments later on a groundout.

The Crushers scored their final five runs with two outs. In his first game back since June 16, Kenen Irizarry started the home half of the second with a double to right. He came around to score on a two out double to center off the bat of Isaacs. Harris followed with a two run triple to right field to cap the inning.

Lake Erie provided more two out thunder in the seventh and eighth. Watkins stroked a two out single to right to score Isaacs in the seventh. After Sean Cheely walked with two out in the eighth, he stole second and scored on Jackson Pritchard’s single to right.

Zach Smith (4-2) took the loss for Evansville after allowing four runs on four hits with seven strikeouts in six innings of work.

Isaacs Jr. set the tone for Lake Erie at the top of the order, going 3-for-4 and scored three times. Harris went 2-for-3 in the two hole, as the top two in the batting order combined to reach base six times on the night. Pritchard reached safely three times as well with a single and a pair of walks.

The Crushers will continue their three game series with the Otters at Mercy Health Stadium on Tuesday afternoon. Right-hander JD Hammer (2-1, 2.83) will get the start for the Crushers and the Otters will counter with righty Tim Holdgrafer (6-2, 2.37). The first pitch is scheduled for 2:05 PM.