FL Lake Erie Crushers

Offense Ignites Crushers to Victory

Published on June 29, 2014 under Frontier League (FL)
Lake Erie Crushers News Release


AVON, Ohio - The Lake Erie Crushers used an eight-run fifth inning to defeat the Washington Wild Things 11-7 Sunday afternoon at All Pro Freight Stadium, avoiding a three game sweep. The Crushers (20-19) 11 runs were the most they have scored in a game since June 4th. The loss for the Wild Things (24-15) denied them of their third series sweep this season.

Washington jumped out to an early six run lead after three innings, but Lake Erie's bats woke up and responded with 10 unanswered runs in the next two innings.

After three errors in last night's game, defensive miscues haunted the Crushers again early on. After starter Zac Treece walked Garrett Rau with one out, an error by third baseman Matt Dickason allowed Maxx Garrett to reach first base safely. Sam Montgomery singled with two outs two batters later to score Rau and give Washington the early advantage.

Washington's two out magic continued after the RBI single. Treece hit Daniel Poma with a pitch to load the bases for Scott Kalamar. Kalamar unloaded on a 2-0 pitch from Treece sending it over the wall for a grand slam, his first professional home run. Treece allowed five runs in the inning, none of them earned.

After the Wild Things added one more run in the third on a Blaise Fernandez RBI groundout, the Crushers began to chip away at the six-run deficit. Juan Sanchez and Ryan Hutchison both singled to begin the fourth inning. Sanchez advanced to third on a Kevin Franchetti fly out and scored on an errant pickoff attempt to first base. Hutchison then came around to score from second on a single by Adam Ford to cut the lead to four.

The Crushers scored eight runs on six hits in the fifth inning, sending 13 batters to the plate. The inning began with back to back solo home runs by Andrew Davis and Vincent Mejia, their first and fourth home runs on the year respectively. Craig Hertler and Sanchez then followed with singles and came around to score on a bases clearing double by Ryan Hutchison to tie the game.

After a walk and an error, the bases were loaded for Adam Ford. Ford came through with his second RBI of the game, hitting a sacrifice fly to right field to give Lake Erie the lead (7-6). Franchetti scored from third on a wild pitch with the bases loaded two batters later, and Mejia capped the eight run inning with a ground rule double to score Matt Dickason and Davis, who had reached on an error and a walk.

Lake Erie added an insurance run in the seventh. Mejia hit a towering sacrifice fly to deep center field to score Emmanuel Quiles, who had reached on a fielder's choice.

The Lake Erie bullpen pitched six innings of three hit baseball, allowing only one run in the top of the eighth inning when Kalamar singled off of Trevor Longfellow to score Montgomery.

Righty Ryan Connolly (1-0) earned the win in his first game with the Crushers. He pitched the fourth and the fifth inning, allowing just one hit. Zach LeBarron (0-1) took the loss for Washington. He gave up the two-run double to Hutchison to tie the game and didn't record a single out.

The Crushers were powered offensively by Vincent Mejia. Mejia went 3-4 on the afternoon with a home run and four runs batted in. Five other Crushers, Ford, Quiles, Davis, Sanchez, and Hutchison had multi-hit games. Mejia, Ford and Hutchison each had at least two runs batted in. Eight Lake Erie batters recorded a hit and all nine reached base.

After a day off Monday, the Crushers travel to Rockford for a three game series with the Aviators. Mickey Jannis (2-3, 32 K, 5.50) will get the start in game one Tuesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 local time.

The Lake Erie Crushers, the 2009 Frontier League Champions, and 2011 Frontier League Organization of the year, play ball at All Pro Freight Stadium, a 5,000 capacity stadium located in Avon, Ohio. The Frontier League is an independent baseball league with 14 teams operating throughout the Midwest. Season tickets for the 2014 season are on sale now! For more information on tickets, promotions and team news, visit the team website at www.LakeErieCrushers.com or call 440-934-3636.

Check out the Lake Erie Crushers Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Frontier League Stories from June 29, 2014


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.

OurSports Central