Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Incredible Comeback

Crushers rally from six down to beat Trois Rivieres, 12-11

Boxscore unavailable

AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers erased five run and six run deficits on Sunday afternoon at Mercy Health Stadium and scored their first walk off win of the season in a 12-11 win over Trois Rivieres.

The Crushers (2-1) finished the series with 29 runs, far and away their most in a series to start the season, while Trois Rivieres (1-2) scored their fair share of runs as well, plating 22 over the first three games of the season.

Things did not look good early on for the Crushers, as Trois Rivieres scored four times on three hits in the top of the first. Louis-Phillipe Pelletier singled to start the game before he stole second and third, and scored on an errant throw from catcher Ermindo Escobar. Juan Kelly brought the next run home on a sacrifice fly, and Ricardo Sanchez belted a two-run homer to give them a 4-0 lead.  Pelletier struck again in the top of the second inning with a run scoring double to make it 5-0 Trois Rivieres.

Lake Erie was able to battle back and tie the game with a five run third inning. Jarrod Watkins walked to start the inning and scored on a wild pitch, while Danny Perez singled and scored on a wild pitch as well. Escobar belted a double down the line in right to score Kenen Irizarry and Kokko Figueiredo tied the game with a two out double that plated a pair of runs.

Trois Rivieres answered quickly, plating three runs in the top of the fourth. Pelletier and Joe Campagna hit back-to-back RBI doubles and Raphael Gladu drove in the final run of the inning on a sacrifice fly. They added another run in the fifth inning on Elliot Curtis’s RBI single to left. Trois Rivieres plated their final two runs on Gladu’s homer in the sixth inning, his second of the series.

Lake Erie’s second comeback began in the bottom of the sixth inning where they scored five runs, all with two outs. Irizarry walked with the bases loaded to bring in the first run and Jack Harris followed with his first homer of the season, a Grand Slam that soared over the wall in left to bring Lake Erie within a run (11-10).

In the bottom of the ninth, Bryant Flete started the inning with a single to left. Figueiredo and Watkins followed with back-to-back bunt base hits to load the bases. Danny Perez brought in the tying run on a RBI groundout to second. Rodney Tennie then hit a ground ball to first base, which was fielded by Rodney Kelly. Figueiredo broke for the plate on the play and beat Kelly’s throw from first base to win the game.

Sam Curtis (1-0) scored the victory for Lake Erie, going two thirds of the ninth inning allowing no runs on no hits. James Bradwell (0-1) took the loss after allowing two runs on three hits over a third of the ninth inning.

Over the weekend series, the two teams combined to score 51 runs on 62 hits. Six Crushers reached safely multiple times on Sunday evening. Figueiredo led the way for Lake Erie, going 4-for-5 with a pair of runs scored and he drove in two as well. He had five hits in the series and drove in four runs. Harris went 3-for-4 with the Grand Slam, giving him six hits in the series. Watkins went 2-for-3 with a pair of walks, giving him five free passes over the weekend and he hit safely five times.

The Crushers are off on Monday but will begin a three game series on the road in Troy, N.Y., on Tuesday evening against the Tri-City Valley Cats. Brock Begue will get the start for the Crushers. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:30 PM.