Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Crushers rack up 17 hits; set up rubber match for Sunday

Box Score: pointstreak.com/baseball/boxscoretext.html?gameid=542638

SCHAUMBURG, Illinois – The Lake Erie Crushers found themselves in a shootout Saturday versus Schaumburg. A back-and-forth contest eventually witnessed the Crushers outlast the Boomers 10-8.

The men in purple struck first in the middle game. Lake Erie’s Eric Callahan brought Bryan DeLaRosa home to score safely in the top of the second inning on a single. Steve Passatempo added to the early offense in the third for the Crushers, scoring Steven Kraft to give Lake Erie a 2-0 lead.

The home half of the third treated the Schaumburg squad well. Alec Craig came around to score on a double by Chase Dawson to assert the Boomers on the scoreboard for the first time. An error by Lake Erie allowed Dawson to dash home to even the score at 2-2. Schaumburg snagged the advantage in the run department on a Clint Hardy double that allowed two Boomers to score.

Dillon Larson made the start for Lake Erie, spanning 2 2/3 innings with four runs surrendered (one earned) on four hits.

The Crushers responded with their own four-run inning in the fourth frame offensively. Callahan scored Nick Rotola on an RBI single followed by a Shawon Dunston Jr. double that propelled Callahan home. Trevor Achenbach and Passatempo pitched in with RBI singles to regain the lead for the Crushers. They owned a 6-4 lead after four innings of play.

The Crushers knocked around one of the premier starters in the Frontier League, Kyle Arjona. Arjona lasted 3 2/3 innings on the rubber. He let up six runs on 11 hits with a trio of strikeouts against a struggling Lake Erie offense.

The Men of Crush went right back to work in the fifth. An error on behalf of the Boomers sent multiple Crushers home. Dunston Jr. and Rotola crossed home plate on a ball put in play by Kraft. The Crushers enjoyed a four-run lead halfway through the game.

The bottom half of the fifth saw Braxton Davidson launch a solo home run to pull within three runs.

After a pitching change to insert Taylor Sugg into the game in the seventh inning, Davidson smashed a game-tying three-run homer on the first pitch to put the score at 8-8.

In the top of the ninth, with Kraft aboard on second base, Achenbach sent a ball out of the park to push Lake Erie into the lead for the third time on the night.

J.T. Perez stifled the Boomers in the bottom of the ninth inning to secure his 13th save of the 2021 season.

Taylor Sugg (4-3) ended as the winner with 1 1/3 innings of work on the mound. Chalked up as the loser was Kristian Scott (0-2).

Trevor Achenbach recorded four hits in six at-bats on the night. He added three runs batted in to his credit.

The Crushers have a record of 36-46 and sit seven games behind Schaumburg.

The rubber game between Schaumburg and Lake Erie will be a showdown between Jake Pilarski (3-3) and Andrew Dean (4-8). The finale is set to get underway at 7:00 pm EST.