Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Tough Home Tilt

Crushers drop 11-0 decision to Gateway

Box Link: https://frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2022-23/boxscores/20230818_eyfb.xml

AVON, Ohio — Little to nothing went right for the Lake Erie Crushers at Mercy Health Stadium on Friday night, as they suffered an 11-0 drubbing at the hands of the Gateway Grizzlies in the series opener.

The Crushers (32-50) have now lost three in a row while the victory for the Grizzlies (50-31) was their fourth in as many games against the Crushers this season.

Gateway took the lead just three pitches into the game. Jairus Richards smashed a solo homer that went over the inflatables in the kid zone area in right, his 13th of the season. Two batters later, Cole Brannen tripled to right. Stephen Chamblee (1-1) then struck out Mark Vierling, but on a dropped third strike, the Crushers threw out Vierling at first and Brannen stole home to make it 2-0 Grizzlies.

The Grizzlies added a pair of runs of the fourth. Andrew Penner started the inning with a base hit to center and came around to score on Cole Barr’s RBI single to left. The inning ended on Eric Rivera’s two out, RBI single to center, and he was thrown at second base by Sean Cheely after trying to extend the base hit into a double.

Gateway went on to put two more on the board in the top of the seventh. Richards reached on a one out walk and scored on a balk before Brannen smacked a RBI single to score Rivera to make it 6-0 Grizzlies.

They removed any doubt by scoring five times on just two hits in the top of the eighth. Bases loaded walks were issued to Brannen and Kyle Gaedele, while Mark Vierling singled home a run and DJ Stewart capped the frame with a two run single.

Parker Johnson (1-3) picked up the win for Gateway after tossing seven scoreless innings and allowed just four hits while striking out nine. Chamblee took the loss after allowing four runs on six hits with four strikeouts in four innings of work.

The Crushers will continue their series with the Grizzlies at Mercy Health Stadium on Saturday evening. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:05 PM.