Lake Erie Crushers D. Florence
Published on July 9, 2017 under Frontier League (FL)
Lake Erie Crushers News Release
AVON, Ohio -- The Lake Erie Crushers, presented by Mercy, came from behind to score their fourth straight victory, defeating the Florence Freedom, 4-1 at Sprenger Health Care Stadium on Saturday night.
The win for the Crushers (22-27) was their fourth in a row, marking their longest winning streak of the season, and marks their third straight series victory, while the loss for the Freedom (32-18) was their fourth in a row and their sixth in their last seven games.
Florence plated the game's first run in the top of the first inning. Taylor Oldham reached on a one out single, and made his way to third on Andrew Mercurio's two out base hit to right. Andrew Godbolt followed with a RBI double to the gap in left center to score Oldham and give the Freedom a 1-0 lead.
Enrique Zamora (1-1) held the Crushers hitless through the first four innings of the contest, before Lake Erie scored three times on three hits to take a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the fifth. The inning started with a walk issued to Tanner Lubach, who made his way to second on Trevor Achenbach's sacrifice bunt, and L.J. Kalawaia drove him home on Lake Erie's first hit of the night, a run scoring single to right.
Jordan Dean followed Kalawaia's single with a double to the gap in left center, putting runners on second and third. Brandon Murray gave the Crushers the lead two pitches later on a RBI groundout, and Sean Hurley brought in the final run of the inning on a two-out RBI single to center.
The Crushers added one last run in the bottom of the sixth. Austin O'Brien started the inning with a double to right, and scored two batters later on Lubach's RBI double to center.
Payton Lobdell (3-6) scored the victory for the Crushers, allowing just a run on five hits over six innings of action. He allowed a run on three hits in the first inning, but surrendered just a pair of hits over his final five innings of work. Andrew Utterback tossed two scoreless innings of relief, before Chandler Jagodzinski (12) tossed a scoreless ninth inning to snag the save. Zamora took the loss after allowing three runs on three hits over 4.2 innings of work.
Kalawaia and Hurley paced the Crushers with two hits each. Hurley went 2-for-2 with a pair of singles, reached all four times up, while Kalawaia hit safely twice and has now reached safely in 16 straight games.
The Crushers will finish their three-game series with the Florence Freedom at Sprenger Health Care Stadium on Sunday afternoon. Right-hander Steve Hagen (3-3, 5.67) will make the start for the Crushers and the Freedom will counter with right-hander Jordan Kraus (7-3, 3.24).The first pitch is scheduled for 2:05 PM
Frontier League Stories from July 9, 2017
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- Lake Erie Crushers D. Florence - Lake Erie Crushers
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