Lake Erie Crushers News & Game Recaps

Unraveled in the Eighth

Eighth inning haunts Crushers in 6-2 loss

Box Link: http://pointstreak.com/baseball/boxscoretext.html?gameid=542547

AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers surrendered five runs on five hits in the eighth inning of Wednesday night’s contest at Mercy Health Stadium and dropped the second game of their series to the Schaumburg Boomers, 6-2.

For the Crushers (40-52) the loss was their fifth in their last six games on the current home stand, while the win for the Boomers (49-43) was their eighth in 11 games against the Crushers this season.

The pitching was strong on both sides for most of the game. Lake Erie lefty Dillon Larsen turned in a terrific start, allowing just a run on a hit over 5 1/3 innings of work. The only hit he allowed was a solo homer to Quincy Nieporte, his 16th of the season and it came in the top of the fourth to give the Boomers a 1-0 lead.

Lake Erie answered quickly with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth to take the lead. Trevor Achenbach started the inning with a single to left. After Kyle Arjona retired the next two batters, Steve Passatempo belted a double to the gap in left center field. Javier Betancourt then belted a RBI single to center. On the play, Schaumburg catcher Alberto Schmidt’s errant throw to second in an attempt to throw out Betancourt, actually hit off Betancourt’s back and rolled into right field to score Passatempo to give Lake Erie a 2-1 lead.

The Boomers loaded the bases in the top of the seventh inning before Taylor Sugg (4-4) struck out Schmidt and Alec Craig to get out of the inning. However, Sugg wasn’t able to make it out of the eighth inning. Three straight one out singles were recorded by Brett Milazzo, Nieporte and Angelo Gumbs. Gumbs’s single scored Milazzo to tie the game and Luke Becker followed with a RBI groundout to score Nieporte. Matt Botcher’s single to left scored Gumbs, and Schmidt capped the inning on a two run double to right.

Sugg took the loss for the Crushers, allowing four runs, three earned on seven hits over 2 1/3 innings of relief, while Isaiah Rivera (2-3) picked up the victory after tossing three scoreless innings of one hit relief and struck out six.

Passatempo and Betancourt paced the Crushers offensively with two hits each.

The Crushers and Boomers will finish the three game series at Mercy Health Stadium on Thursday night. It will be the final home game of the season for the Crushers, and they’ll give the ball to right-hander Jake Pilarski (3-3, 5.22) while the Boomers will counter with lefty Andrew Dean (4-10, 4.99). The first pitch is scheduled for 6:35 PM.