Big offensive day leads Lake Erie Crushers to 13-8 win over Evansville
Hitting hasn’t been the Crushers’ strong suit this year, but it sure was in their 13-8 home win over the Evansville Otters on July 26.
Lake Erie (27-35) is 5-0 at home this season against the Otters (34-27), and it has already clinched the series win with a 6-4 victory in the opener on July 25. The Crushers had their best run output of the season last week against the Otters with 14 runs, and this game was the second-most. With 14 hits and two home runs, the bats were looking good.
“It’s good to see, guys are barreling the ball and hitting with guys on base, that’s good stuff,” Crushers manager Jared Lemieux said. “We needed to take it to them today and prove that we’re not going down here without a fight. The boys really stuck together today, put up good at-bats and made the pitchers work. That’s what leads to wins.”
In the first inning, the Otters' bats were working well. Kona Quiggle came up second and blasted a solo homer off JD Hammer to put Evansville in front early. The Crushers were shut down, initially, but were opportunistic in the second inning to score four runs.
Kemuel Thomas-Rivera and Scout Knott each reached first base on a walk and hit by pitch, while Josh Rego singled. With the bases loaded, John Tuccillo was hit by a pitch to score a run. Back to the top of the order, Jiandido Tromp hit a dribbling ball toward the mound, but reached first for an RBI single to put the Crushers in the lead. Zach Racusin grounded into a fielder's choice for an RBI, but was safe at first after an errant throw. Tuccillo scored on the error, extending the lead to 4-1.
"It was cool to finally see us string together some hits in tough situations," Rego said. "I feel like every game, we're racking up the hits, but they're not as timely as they were yesterday and today. We got to keep that rolling."
All four of Lake Erie's runs in the second inning came without a hit into the outfield, but the hitting only got better from there. Thomas-Rivera walked his first at-bat, but he got four hits in a row afterward. His first hit was a double in the third inning, and Watkins followed it up with a single. A walk loaded the bases again, and Rego drew another walk to score a run. Tuccillo grounded out on the next at-bat, but got the RBI as Watkins scored.
Coming up again in the fourth, Thomas-Rivera hit an RBI double to put another run on the board. Lake Erie led, 7-2, after the Otters hit another solo homer in the top of the fourth. Evansville came back to cut the deficit to 7-5 following three straight walks, a sacrifice RBI from Dakota Phillips and a 2-RBI double by Jomar Reyes.
To keep their lead, the Crushers needed a spark. In the sixth inning, that was Rego. Sean Cheely hit an RBI single, and Rego sent both of them home with a two-run blast to extend the lead to 10-5. In the seventh inning, it was Thomas-Rivera again. With two runners on, he smashed a three-run shot into left field that went over the hill. His moonshot of a homer was possible from his recently built up confidence.
"It was more the mental part where it was a struggle," Thomas-Rivera said. "I think it was missing, and that's where my hitting coach, Santiago Chirino, helped me out. It's just been unbelievable after that. At first, I was trying to hit it opposite field. When I got two strikes, I just was trying to get contact and I didn't know it was going to be that far and that hard, but it went."
In the eighth and ninth innings, the Otters added three more runs, but those two home runs were more than enough to help the Crushers out. They look for the sweep at 7:05 p.m. on July 27.
"Evansville's a good ball club. It's nice to see against teams as good as they are, that we can compete," Lemieux said. "It gives us a lot of confidence that we can do something here."
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