Home Sweet Home for Crushers
August 21, 2009 - Frontier League (FL)
Lake Erie Crushers News Release
Avon, OH-After a difficult six game road trip that ended with a sweep at Southern Illinois, the Lake Erie Crushers returned home to All Pro Freight Stadium and beat the Evansville Otters by an 8-2 score on Friday night in front of more than 4,600 fans.
Right-hander Cardoza Tucker powered the Crushers to victory with eight dominating innings on the mound. Tucker allowed just two runs on six hits, while striking out a season-high seven batters against just one walk. "This win was very important for us tonight," said Tucker afterwards. "We've got a lot of guys banged up and I took the responsibility to go out there and give us some innings and help out the bullpen."
The Crushers fell behind early as Luke Hetherington delivered a first inning RBI single to give Evansville a 1-0 lead. Lake Erie tied the game in the third as Tyler Johnson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring home Drew Saylor. The Crushers then took command of the game in the fifth as Saylor hit an RBI single, Gordon Gronkowski added a run scoring double, and Eddie Tisdale chipped in with an RBI grounder to give Lake Erie a 4-1 lead.
After Evansville scored a run in the top of the seventh, Gronkowski put the Crushers back up by three with a solo homer to center. The blast was his 19th of the season. Then in the eighth, Brad Griffths hit a two-run home run to left and Saylor capped off the scoring with an RBI double.
"Tonight's game was big for us coming off of the way the road trip ended," said Crushers skipper John Massarelli. "We come home tired, but there's 4600 fans there screaming for us. It really helps."
Lake Erie improves to 47-35 on the season and will continue their three game series with the Otters on Saturday evening. Paul Fagan will be on the mound for the Crushers against John Ducey.
Frontier League Stories from August 21, 2009
- Kings Take Opener - Gateway Grizzlies
- Miners Win on Walk Off - Southern Illinois Miners
- Rascals Blast Three Homers In 6-2 Victory - River City Rascals
- Freedom Get a Win - Florence Y'alls
- Wild Things Swept in Double Header - Washington Wild Things
- Bolts sweep Wild Things - Windy City ThunderBolts
- RiverHawks Lose Again, 4-2 - Rockford RiverHawks
- Crushers Pull Away from Otters - Evansville Otters
- Rascals Beat Bums - Traverse City Beach Bums
- Home Sweet Home for Crushers - Lake Erie Crushers
- Kalamazoo Kings to Celebrate Manager's Birthday - Kalamazoo Kings
- Sliders Slip 12-9 - Midwest Sliders of Ypsilanti
- Otters earn 12-9 victory - Evansville Otters
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
