Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Crushers continue dominance of Windy City in 4-3 victory

Box Link: http://pointstreak.com/baseball/boxscoretext.html?gameid=542661

CRESTWOOD, Ill. — The Lake Erie Crushers picked up the second win of their current road trip on Friday night at Ozinga Field, as they came from behind to defeat the Windy City Thunderbolts, 4-3.

The Crushers (21-18) are now unbeaten in seven games against Windy City (14-24) this season, while the Bolts saw a three game winning streak snapped in the process. The Crushers remain alone in first place in the Frontier League’s Central Division, a game ahead of the Schaumburg Boomers, who they will host next weekend.

Mirroring the first two games of their series last weekend, Windy City jumped out to an early lead. Rob Calabrese got them on the board with a solo blast in the bottom of the first inning and John Sechen hit a solo shot in the bottom of the second.

Lake Erie was able to tie things up in the top of the fourth inning. Three consecutive hits started the inning. Trevor Achenbach belted a lead off single to left and made his way to third on Brody Wofford’s double to right. Shortly thereafter, Connor Oliver brought them both home with a double to right field, tying the game at 2-2.

The Crushers snapped that 2-2 tie in the top of the seventh inning. Eric Callahan began the inning with a base hit, and made his way to third on an error. Walks were issued to Javier Betancourt and Isaac Benard to load the bases and Achenbach delivered a clutch, two run single to left field to give the Crushers a 4-2 lead.

Windy City clawed back within a run in the bottom of the eighth inning when Dan Robinson scored on Rob Weissheier’s infield single. In the bottom of the ninth, the Thunderbolts had the bases loaded with two outs, when Dan Kight (6) struck out Calabrese to secure the victory.

Making his third consecutive start against Windy City, Ryan Feierabend (3-2) turned in another strong outing, allowing just a pair of runs on five hits and struck out four batters to secure the victory. The Crushers have won the last four games he’s started. Kight picked up the save, after tossing 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Logan Wiley (0-1) took the loss for the Thunderbolts after allowing four runs on nine hits over 6 1/3 innings of action.

Achenbach led the way for the Crushers offensively, going 3-for-5, while Betancourt, Benard and Oliver all hit safely twice.

The Crushers and Thunderbolts will continue their three game series at Ozinga Field on Saturday night. Right-hander Aaron Glickstein (2-1, 4.09) will start for the Crushers and the Thunderbolts will counter with lefty Jake Fisher (2-3, 6.04). The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM.