Lake Erie Crushers grind out sweep with 5-4 win over Evansville

In one of the longest games of the season — more than three hours following a one-hour rain delay — the Lake Erie Crushers earned the sweep over the Evansville Otters with a 5-4 home victory on July 6 at Mercy Health Stadium.

The Crushers (21-27) typically play clean baseball with strong defense, but a costly error in the top of the eighth saw their 4-2 lead crumble into a tie game. However, the Otters (26-21) had major miscues of their own in the bottom of the eighth that allowed Lake Erie to take back the lead. It was a long day on all accounts, but it felt a lot shorter for the Crushers after pulling out the win.

“This was a very difficult game,” Crushers manager Jared Lemieux said. “Evansville played great and someone has to win the game. Luckily it was us. We did a good job of holding the lead for most of the game, and we made plays when we had to.”

Lake Erie didn’t take long to start making plays as Todd Isaacs Jr led off the bottom of the first with a double. Jarrod Watkins picked up the fielder’s choice RBI on a ground ball that scored Isaacs Jr.

The Otters quickly struck back with a solo homer from Jomar Reyes to lead off the second inning. Dakota Phillips also picked up an RBI single for Evansville in the third to make it 2-1.

The Crushers kept chipping away at the plate, earning one run in both the third and fourth innings to take back the lead. Jack Harris led off the third with a double, and he scored on an RBI double from Zach Racusin. In the fourth, Josh Rego had the lone hit with a single. He advanced to third after consecutive walks, and a sacrifice RBI from Harris added another run on the board.

In the sixth inning, a sacrifice RBI from Kemuel Thomas-Rivera extended the Crushers’ lead to 4-2. While Thomas-Rivera stepped up with the RBI, he also committed the throwing error in the eighth that tied the game.

Darrien Ragins had just entered the game in relief with the bases loaded and two outs, and two runs scored on the routine play at second base. George Callil and Jake Green touched the plate for the Otters, while Brian Rosario and Noah Meyers sat at second and third. Kona Quiggle drew a walk to load the bases once again, but Ragins got out of it with a fly out to left field.

Isaacs Jr. led off the bottom of the eighth with his third hit of the game, but got out at second on the next at-bat on the fielder’s choice by Harris. Chaos ensued when Harris stole second, and an overthrow got him to third. On the close play at third, the umpire called him safe. Harris then scored on a wild pitch to make it 5-4 in favor of the Crushers.

“Baseball is a game of inches, and sometimes it went our way tonight, and other times it didn’t,” Lemieux said. “We just tried to capitalize when it did go our way. We used the whole team tonight, everybody filled in their roles. They’re getting more comfortable in their roles and it’s nice to pull off a big win right there.”

Ragins stayed in the game for the ninth inning and shut down the Otters to earn the win. Angelo Baez also had a strong start with only two earned runs in five innings. The Crushers now move on to a weekend road series with Schaumburg to close out the action before the all-star break.

“We’ve got to start climbing here, and this was a good start for us,” Lemieux said. “It’s always great to win in front of our home fans.”