FL Lake Erie Crushers

Crushers Split Series

Published on August 7, 2009 under Frontier League (FL)
Lake Erie Crushers News Release


Avon, OH - The Lake Erie Crushers and Midwest Sliders battled for 18 innings on Friday evening at All Pro Freight Stadium as the two teams resumed a game suspended by rain in July, then played a seven inning matchup for game two. The Crushers captured game one in 11 innings by a 5-2 score and then were defeated by Midwest 5-2 in the nightcap.

Midwest wasted no time going to work in game one, scoring twice in the first inning to take a 2-1 lead on Lake Erie. The score stayed that way until the sixth inning, when Tyler Johnson hit a solo homer to left to tie the game at 2. It remained a 2-2 tie into extra innings, until the Crushers finally broke through off of P.J. Zocchi. Johnson hit an RBI single to score Drew Saylor and Arden McWilliams added a two run single to give the Crushers a 5-2 edge. Jacinto Gonell pitched a scoreless bottom of the 11th to earn his 11th save of the season. J.J. Pacella picked up the victory.

In game two, Lake Erie and Midwest battled to a scoreless tie through the first three innings as starters Josh Faiola and Dan Horvath controlled the action. In the fourth, the Sliders finally broke through as Zack Pace led off with a triple and scored on a wild pitch. With two outs in the inning, Robbie Knapp hit a solo homer to give Midwest a 2-0 lead. McWilliams tried to keep the Crushers in the ballgame with a solo homer in the fifth and a sacrifice fly in the sixth, but the Sliders tacked on two runs in the sixth and one more in the seventh to take a 5-2 lead. Lake Erie loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh, but Midwest closer Earl Oakes struck out Johnson to end the game.

"I thought Horvath pitched well against us and changed things around," said Crushers Manager John Massarelli afterwards. "It's up to our guys now to be professional and put the loss behind us and move on. Tomorrow's a new day."

The Crushers are now 40-30 on the season and will continue their four game series with the Sliders on Saturday evening at 7:05 P.M. Brent Lysander will get the start for Lake Erie against Midwest's Jeff Fischer.

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Frontier League Stories from August 7, 2009


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