After the Lake Erie Crushers won their first five home games against the Evansville Otters this season, the streak came to a screeching halt.
Tied after four innings, the Otters scored the game’s final eight runs to down the Crushers, 10-2, in the series finale at Mercy Health Stadium on July 27. Evansville blew it open with four straight hits and five runs in the top of the fifth inning.
“The guys fought hard today, we’re playing good baseball right now,” Crushers manager Jared Lemieux said. “You can’t win them all. Evansville’s a good team, so to win this series against them and the season series against a team like that, I’m proud of the group. Hopefully, we can continue in a positive direction moving forward against Tri-City tomorrow.”
Lake Erie's (27-36) bats had a good showing in the game prior, but the Otters (35-27) bounced back defensively. Pitcher Braden Scott had a solid outing giving up only four hits in six innings, and both relievers held the Crushers hitless in the final three innings.
Evansville got off to a 2-0 start with two RBI doubles from Dakota Phillips in the first and third innings. Despite not hitting the ball well, the Crushers hung around for a while and tied it up in the bottom of the third. Sean Cheely led off the inning with the team's first hit and stole second base. Sam Frontino also drew a walk, and both players stole at the same time to each advance. It just so happened to be a wild pitch, and Cheely slid in safely at home for the first run.
"There's no lack of hustle on this team. You saw the way that we scored our two runs today," Lemieux said. "A good hustle play by Sean Cheely, that's the stuff that I like and you can see these guys are working hard. Eventually, that pays off."
Jiandido Tromp came up next, and he hit an infield RBI single that the defense couldn't handle. Frontino scored to tie the game at 2-2. Somehow, some way, the Crushers were back in the game. However, that didn't last for long.
Lake Erie can usually count on pitcher Angelo Baez to throw a solid inning, but he struggled in the fifth inning. The Otters put up five runs on four straight hits to essentially put the game away. Noah Meyers led off with a double, Jeffrey Baez drew a walk, and Phillips hit an RBI single for his third hit of the game.
That began the hit rally as Jomar Reyes hit an RBI double behind him, and both Josh Broughton and Ethan Skender also followed up with hits. Skender's was a 2-RBI triple that ended Baez's night.
"Angelo's been very good, he ran into a tough luck inning there in the fifth," Lemieux said. "But he's been very good for us and he'll bounce back."
In the eighth and ninth innings, Evansville tacked on three more runs. Aaron Beck scored following an error, and both Meyers and George Callil had RBIs in the ninth.
After the series win, the Crushers move on to a weekend series with the Tri-City ValleyCats. The first game is at 7:05 p.m. on July 28.
