Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

T-Bolts Blank Crushers

Crushers held to three hits in 3-0 loss

Box Link: https://frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/boxscores/20230611_o8hc.xml

AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers saw their bid at a weekend sweep upended at Mercy Health Stadium on Sunday afternoon as they were shutout by the Windy City Thunderbolts in their series finale, 3-0.

The loss for the Crushers (13-14) snapped a four game winning streak which was tied for their longest of the season, while the victory for the Thunderbolts (10-17) brought their five game losing streak to a close.

Garret Christman (2-1) stole the show for Windy City. The right-hander tossed a complete game shutout and held the Crushers to just three hits while striking out six on the afternoon. At one point, he retired 19 straight hitters.

Windy City plated their first two runs in the top of the second. Matt Morgan belted a single to right field to score Micah Yonamine and Morgan came around to score later in the inning on Junior Martina’s two out RBI single to right.

The Thunderbolts added one last run in the top of the fifth. Martina reached on a Jarrod Watkins error at short and scored with two outs on Yonamine’s RBI single to right.

Lake Erie’s chances to score were limited as they had just four base runners in the entire contest. They made things interesting in the ninth after Watkins and Santiago Chirino reached with one out. Christman negated the threat after retiring Gabe Snyder on a line out and Jack Harris on a groundout to end the game.

Angelo Baez (3-3) once again pitched well and took a hard luck loss. He surrendered a trio of runs, only two earned on five hits through six innings of action and struck out three batters. Brayden Bonner, Sam Curtis and Trevor Kuncl all pitched perfect innings in relief.

Watkins went 2-for-4 on the afternoon and was the only Crusher to hit safely multiple times. He extended his hitting streak to seven games and he’s hit safely in 11 of the 12 games he’s played.

The Crushers are off on Monday but will begin a six game road trip, which starts with a three game series against the Tri-City Valley Cats on Tuesday night. Right-hander Yasel Santana (1-1, 2.70) will get the start for the Crushers and the first pitch is scheduled for 6:30 PM.