Crushers Pitching Shuts Down ThunderBolts
Published on August 21, 2019 under Frontier League (FL)
Lake Erie Crushers News Release
AVON, Ohio - The Lake Erie Crushers, presented by Mercy Health, dominated the Windy City Thunderbolts on both sides of the ball in this one to win by a final score of 7-2.
The Crushers (47-39) win their seventh game in their last 10 with the win. While the Thunderbolts (37-49) are now 18-23 against the East this year with the loss.
Sean Johnson (3-2) started for Lake Erie and turned in another quality start. Johnson gave up only two runs on three hits, walked two and struck out five over his 6.0 innings of work. Cole Bellair (3-6) earned the loss as he gave up five runs on seven hits, walked three and struck out two over 5.0 innings. Kent Hasler (6) picked up the nine out save as he shut down the Thunderbolts offense for his 3.0 innings of work.
Lake Erie started the scoring in this one early. In the bottom of the second inning on the first pitch of his at-bat, Jake Vieth launched his 15th homer of the year over the right field fence to give the Crushers a 1-0 lead.
The Crushers added to their lead in the next inning. Aaron Hill drew a walk to start the inning and then advanced into scoring position two batters later on Logan Farrar's walk. Bellair was able to get Dale Burdick to fly out for the second out of the inning to make it look like he was going to get out of the jam. But then Vieth stepped in and hit an RBI single to make it a two run Lake Erie lead.
Windy City answered back in the top of the fourth inning. Johnson walked the first batter of the inning but then gave up a two-run home run to Tyler Alamo to tie the game 2-2.
But Lake Erie's offense answered back right away in the next half inning. Bellair got the first two batters of the inning out with a pair of fly outs. Zach Racusin got the offense going though with a single. Hill stepped in and hit a grounder to the left side of the diamond that the third baseman could not handle cleanly. Christian Funk's error at third allowed Hill to reach and move Racusin into scoring position. Then, on the first pitch of his at-bat, Emmanuel Marrero hit a towering three-run shot off the scoreboard in right to put the Crushers ahead 5-2. The homer was also Marrero's 14th on the year.
The Crushers added two more runs in the seventh inning to put the game out of reach. Racusin hit a one out solo homer, his second of the year, for the first run of the inning. And a few batters later, Logan Farrar hit an RBI ground out to make it a 7-2 Crushers lead.
Kent Hasler came on to pitch in relief in the seventh inning and shut down Windy City for his entire outing. Windy City got two base runners on against Hasler, but neither one made it into scoring position. With his four strikeouts tonight, Hasler now has a staggering 82 in his 59.2 innings this year.
The Crushers will finish their four-game series with the Windy City Thunderbolts on Thursday at Sprenger Health Care Stadium in Avon, Ohio. Jared Koenig (7-1, 2.09) will be on the mound for Lake Erie. While the Thunderbolts will counter with Cole Bellair (3-8, 3.92). First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 PM.
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