The Lake Erie Crushers figured something out this week during their four-game winning streak, but they ran into dealing pitcher Garrett Christman on June 11 in a 3-0 home loss to the Windy City Thunderbolts.
In a complete-game shutout, Christman struck out six Crushers batters and gave up only four hits. It was fast moving game without much offense, but the Thunderbolts gave their pitcher more than enough.
“You have to tip your cap, he threw well,” Crushers manager Jared Lemieux said. “He mixed his pitches nicely and we weren’t able to string anything together.”
Despite the loss, Lake Erie (13-14) found its footing this week and came out of the six-game home stand with a 4-2 record and two series wins. After the strong week, the Crushers jumped up two spots for fifth place in the West standings.
In the victory, Windy City (10-17) scored two runs in the second and one in the fifth off of Lake Erie pitcher Angelo Baez. Micah Yonamine was hit by a pitch to start the second, and he was able to advance to third after two straight groundouts.
Facing two outs, Matt Morgan came through with an RBI single to score Yonamine. Junior Martina later scored Morgan on an RBI single of his own. Martina also scored the third run for Windy City after reaching on an error to begin the fifth inning. Yonamine scored the first run of the game, and he delivered an RBI single for the third.
On the Crushers' side of things, it was another solid outing for Baez, but he has had a lack of run support in recent starts. In six innings, he gave up only five hits and two earned runs.
"Again that's another quality start from Angelo," Lemieux said. "You can't win if you don't score, and that's the simplicity of the game there."
At the plate, it was a tough day with Christman pitching so well. Jarrod Watkins led off with a single for the Crushers, but they wouldn't get another hit until the third inning from Sean Cheely. From there, the next 15 batters were retired. After Cheely's hit, Lake Erie didn't get another base runner until the bottom of the ninth.
Despite not getting anything going all day, Lake Erie did show some fight in the final inning. Watkins got his second hit of the day and was able to advance to second following a hit from Santiago Chirino. However, the next two batters got out to end it.
"I thought that last inning was a great response to the whole day," Watkins said. "That pitcher was dealing and throwing good pitches. I thought we just competed that last inning."
The Crushers will now go on the road for six games this upcoming week, beginning on June 13 against the Tri-City ValleyCats.
THE SCORE
Thunderbolts 3, Crushers 0
