Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Crushers lose lead late at home in 4-2 loss

Box Link: http://pointstreak.com/baseball/boxscoretext.html?gameid=542522

AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers were three outs away from scoring a series victory over the Schaumburg Boomers at Mercy Health Stadium on Sunday afternoon, but surrendered three runs in the top of the ninth and fell to the Boomers, 4-2.

The Crushers (24-22) now trail the Boomers (25-22) by a half game at the top of the Frontier League’s Central Division, and saw their home record drop below .500 (12-13) with the loss.

Lake Erie fired the first shot in the bottom of the third. Their first hit of the game was an opposite field single from Eric Callahan. A passed ball put him on second and Shawon Dunston Jr. laid a sacrifice bunt down to move him to third before Bryan DeLaRosa drove him home on a RBI single to center.

The Crushers plated their final run in the bottom of the fifth. Brody Wofford belted a double down the left field line and came around to score on Connor Oliver’s single to center field.

Schaumburg’s comeback began with a run scored on an error in the fifth. Chase Dawson started the inning with single to right field and scored later in the inning when Nick Ames hit a ground ball to second base that Trevor Achenbach could not handle.

The Boomers were down to their final three outs in the top of the ninth inning when they rallied for a trio of runs on three hits. They sent eight batters to the plate in the inning. It all started when Daniel Kight (1-3) hit Brett Milazzo with a 1-2 pitch. Clint Hardy followed with a double down the line in left, and Dawson delivered a dagger, with a two run triple to the gap in right center field to give the Boomers the lead. The three bagger was his sixth hit of the series. Dawson scored the game’s final run moments later on a sacrifice fly from Angelo Gumbs.

The loss wasted a good start from Paul Hall Jr., who out-dueled Schaumburg’s Kyle Arjona, who has been one of the Frontier League’s best starting pitchers. Hall tossed seven great innings, allowing only an unearned run on three hits while striking out seven. Kight took the loss, allowing three runs on two hits over two thirds of the ninth inning. Thomas Nicoll (2-0) struck out the side in the eighth to get the win for the Boomers while Jake Joyce (4) worked a perfect ninth for the save.

Wofford led the way for the Crushers offensively, going 2-for-4. Isaac Benard went 0-for-4 and saw his 11-game hitting streak come to and end in the process. Oliver’s RBI single in the fourth inning extended his on base streak to 11 games.

The Crushers are off on Monday, but will begin a six game road trip on Tuesday night. The roadie starts with a three game series against the Gateway Grizzlies in Sauget, Illinois. The first pitch on Tuesday is scheduled for 7:45 PM.