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FL Lake Erie Crushers

Crushers Drop Finale to Gateway After Hour Long Weather Delay

August 15, 2024 - Frontier League (FL)
Lake Erie Crushers News Release


Sauget, IL - The Lake Erie Crushers (45-35) and Gateway Grizzlies (48-32) battled it out in another close game on Thursday night with some rain and lightning in the mix. Gateway rallied late for a 4-2 win to take the series. They net a game in the West standings and have a three game lead over Lake Erie for second place.

Unlike Wednesday's game that didn't see any offensive action until the 7th inning, Thursday's game saw some thump from the opening gun. SS Jarrod Watkins walloped a 1-1 delivery from Lukas Veinbergs over the porch in right field for a leadoff home run, his 5th of the year.

The Grizzlies prowled back with a run to tie it in the 4th, but LHP Jack Eisenbarger limited the damage to just the single tally despite two men being in scoring position with less than two outs. The Crushers' pitching staff was incredible at stranding runners in the series.

In the 6th, the Crushers put men on first and second to lead off the inning. Watkins came up again and showed bunt, but then pulled back and slashed a liner off the glove of the first baseman. He threw to second to get a force out, but the return throw to first base was wide, allowing C John Tuccillo to trot home to give Lake Erie the lead back, 2-1.

In the home half, CF Cole Brannen hit a ball deep to right field where RF Jake Guenther took a leap over the short fence. He came up just short of robbing his second home run in a week's time. Gateway made Lake Erie pay for stranding men on base in the top half and put the game square once more with the long ball, 2-2.

Eisenbarger's night was finished after six frames. He held Gateway at bay by inducing lots of weak contact aside from the homer. His final line: 6 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 2 K, on 99 pitches. It was another quality start for the all-star, his 10th of the season.

In the 7th, LHP Cal Carver ran into some trouble after a swinging bunt single to lead the inning. DH Kevin Krause tucked a hard liner inside the third base line for an RBI ground-rule double to put Gateway ahead 3-2. With the bases loaded, the Crushers brought in RHP Christian Scafidi with the bases loaded and nobody out.

Unfortunately for the Crushers, they couldn't find the LOB magic from Wednesday's game. RF Kyle Gaedele added on with a single that hit the base of the right field wall. Scafidi was able to tidy up and keep it to just the one additional run. The score sat at 4-2 with ominous weather setting in at Grizzlies Ballpark.

At 8:40pm CST the game went into a weather delay. With the Crushers traveling to Washington back into the eastern time zone for Friday's game, it was a sticky situation for Lake Erie with the game in Gateway's hand, 4-2.

Giving the Crushers a chance to muster up a comeback, the game was resumed at 9:40pm CST after a one hour weather delay.

The Crushers put a man on in the 8th but failed to score. Then, 1B Scout Knotts singled to lead off the 9th, but the next three were set down in order to end the game.

Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E

Lake Erie Crushers 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 6 1

Gateway Grizzlies 0 0 0 1 0 1 2 0 X 4 10 1

The Crushers will travel to Washington, Pennsylvania to take on the Wild Things at 7:05pm EST on Friday. Washington currently sits in first place in the Frontier League West. It's a big series for Lake Erie with the Boomers and Y'alls winning their respective series and looking to sneak into the playoff spot the Crushers currently occupy.

Interested in attending? Tickets can be found at the link provided join us at the ballpark? No worries! You can stream the Lake Erie Crushers all season long at FloSports.tv.

Frontier League Standings: https://frontierleague.com/sports/bsb/2023-24/overall-standings

Be sure to also follow the Crushers on Instagram/Facebook/X @LECrushers!

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Frontier League Stories from August 15, 2024


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