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 Lake Erie Crushers

Extra Inning Magic

July 6, 2014 - Frontier League (FL)
Lake Erie Crushers News Release


AVON, Ohio - The Lake Erie Crushers won a back and forth battle with the Frontier Greys 5-4 Sunday afternoon at All Pro Freight Stadium, winning in walk off fashion for the eighth time this season.

The win for the Crushers (24-21) gave them their second series win in a row, while the loss for the Greys (11-34) was their ninth in their last eleven games. The Lake Erie offense has now scored 37 runs on 52 hits over their last five games.

The two teams traded leads throughout the game before Andrew Davis's base hit in the tenth inning ended the game and gave the Crushers the walk off win. After three scoreless innings, Frontier struck first with a run in the fourth. Lake Erie answered with three runs in the fifth inning, but the Greys answered right back with two runs in the sixth.

The Crushers retook the lead in the sixth inning, but the Greys countered that run with a run of their own in the seventh. The game was tied a four apiece until Davis ended the game in the tenth inning.

Lake Erie starter Mickey Jannis didn't allow a hit through three innings, but gave up a double to Joe Rapp to lead off the fourth. The next batter Chris Ellison hit a groundball to second base to advance Rapp to third. Michael Vaughn followed with a single to centerfield to score him and give the Greys the early lead.

The Crushers wasted a leadoff triple in the third and another leadoff hit in the fourth inning, but finally capitalized in the fifth. Ryan Hutchison launched a ball over the left field fence with one out to tie the game at 1-1, his third home run of the season. Kevin Franchetti walked with two outs and that began a two-out rally. Craig Hertler hit a bloop single in between the right fielder and second baseman to advance Franchetti to third. Emmanuel Quiles also singled on the first pitch he saw to score Franchetti and Andrew Davis hit the third Crushers single in a row to score Hertler and give Lake Erie a 3-1 advantage.

The Crusher lead quickly vanished as the Greys scored two runs in the sixth. Ellison led off the inning with a single and the next batter Michael Vaughn walked to put the first two runners aboard. Jon Minucci was then hit by a pitch with one out to load the bases. Ellison came around to score on a fly ball hit to right field by Greg Bachman that was misplayed by Hutchison. Frontier tied the game when the next batter Chase Tucker singled to bring home Vaughn.

Lake Erie retook the lead in the bottom half of the inning. Anderson Hidalgo and Adam Ford both singled off Frontier starter Clint Wright to lead it off. Hutchison then hit a ground ball to the right side of the infield to advance both runners to scoring position. Heads up base running by Hidalgo allowed him to score on a ball hit to first base by Juan Sanchez. Wright threw down to second after recording the out at first to catch Ford in a pickle, which allowed Hidalgo to score from third.

A second Lake Erie lead vanished quickly yet again. After Brad Zambron retired the first two batters he faced in the seventh inning, Ellison hit his second home run of the series over the right center field wall to tie the game yet again (4-4).

The Crushers followed with three straight innings without a run, before pulling out some extra inning magic in the tenth. Hertler led off the inning with a walk against relief pitcher Pat Mittura (0-1). Quiles followed the walk with a single to get the winning run ninety feet away. Andrew Davis ended the game with a base hit down the right field line, the Crushers eighth walk off hit of the season.

Jason Wilson (5-2) earned the victory pitching two innings of one-hit ball. He pitched the ninth and tenth inning and faced the minimum amount of batters. Mittura took the loss allowing the game winning run and two hits in one inning of work.

Emmanuel Quiles capped off an outstanding series with three hits and a run batted in. Quiles went 6-14 in the series with seven runs batted in. Andrew Davis and Ryan Hutchison were the only other two Crushers with multi-hit games. Davis hit the aforementioned walk off in the tenth and had an RBI single in the fifth. Hutchison hit 6-12 in the series and had a home run and triple in this one.

The Crushers have two days off before beginning a six-game road trip. They will head east to take on the Washington Wild Things for three games starting Wednesday. Zach Gordon (0-0, 1.42) will make the start for the Crushers in game one of the doubleheader Wednesday, before the series concludes on Thursday. First pitch is scheduled for 6:05 pm.

The Lake Erie Crushers, the 2009 Frontier League Champions, and 2011 Frontier League Organization of the year, play ball at All Pro Freight Stadium, a 5,000 capacity stadium located in Avon, Ohio. The Frontier League is an independent baseball league with 14 teams operating throughout the Midwest. Season tickets for the 2014 season are on sale now! For more information on tickets, promotions and team news, visit the team website at www.LakeErieCrushers.com or call 440-934-3636.


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