AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers, presented by Mercy Health, beat the Windy City Thunderbolts at Ozinga Field on Friday night, by a score of 6-1 to win their third game out of four against Windy City this season.
The win for the Crushers (9-4) helps Lake Erie stay in sole possession of first place in the East, while the Thunderbolts (6-8) snap a three-game winning streak with the loss.
Pat Ledet started the game for the Crushers and threw 7.0 innings, gave up no runs, four hits, walked one, and struck out 11. After Ledet’s third start of the Summer, he know has an impressive 0.86 ERA. Augie Gallardo (1-1) is credited with the win after throwing one inning, giving up one earned run off of one hit, walked one, and struck out two. Chris Washington started for the Thunderbolts and threw very well over 6.2 innings. Washington gave up no runs, six hits, and struck out 11 Lake Erie batters. And Connor Mayes (1-1) is credited with the loss after giving up five earned runs over one inning pitched.
The Crushers offense scored the first run of the game in the top of the eighth inning. James Davison led off the inning with a single. One batter later, Emmanuel Marrero reached on an error by the first baseman Dash Winningham. With one out, Zach Racusin hit an RBI fielder’s choice to score Davison. The 1-0 lead lasted for about 15 minutes until Shane Carrier launched a two-out solo homerun to tie the game. Lake Erie’s offense came back out in the top of the ninth inning and took care of business. The inning started out with a lead-off single by Jake Vieth. Bryan De La Rosa then bunted Vieth over into scoring position. Bodie Bryan then came up and flew out to right field for the second out. Aaron hill would then draw a two-out walk to put runners on first and second. And with two-outs in a tie game where offense was hard to come by, Davison stepped up for Lake Erie. Davison sent a three-run homerun over the left field wall for his second multi-homerun in the past two games to make it a 4-1 lead. Marrero would jump in on the fun with a solo homerun of his own to extend the lead. Lake Erie would go on to score one more run off an RBI double from Steven Kraft to make it 6-1. Lake Erie would call on Seth Lucio to pitch the ninth inning. Lucio pitched a scoreless inning to secure the win.
Every single batter for Lake Erie reached safely and eight out of nine batters had a hit in the contest. Lake Erie’s middle infield contributed to the win as Aaron Hill finished his day 1-4 with a run scored, and Emmanuel Marrero finished 1-5 with a solo homerun. Dale Burdick continues his impressive road trip finishing the day going 1-4 with a run scored. Zach Racusin has been a major boost for the offense on this road trip and helped today as he finished his day 2-5 with an RBI. Jake Vieth had his first three-hit game finishing the day 3-5 with a run scored. But James Davison is the offensive player of the game. Davison not only scored the first run of the game but put the team on his back in the top of the ninth with two outs. He finished the day 2-5, with two runs scored, and three RBI.
The Crushers will continue the three-game series with the Windy City Thunderbolts at Ozinga Field in Crestwood, IL on Saturday night. Right-hander Dylan Mouzakes will take the mound for the Crushers. The Thunderbolts will counter with right-hander Adam Oller. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:05 PM CST.
The Lake Erie Crushers, the 2009 Frontier League Champions, and 2011 Frontier League Organization of the year, play ball at Sprenger Health Care Stadium, a 5,000 capacity stadium located in Avon, Ohio. The Frontier League is an independent baseball league with 10 teams operating throughout the Midwest. For more information on tickets, promotions and team news, visit the team website at www.LakeErieCrushers.com or call 440-934-3636.
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