EXTRA INNING WINS AND MULTIPLE SWEEPS
Windy City vs Lake Erie
The Lake Erie Crushers overcame a four run deficit for the second time in their series with Windy City Thunderbolts at Mercy Health Stadium on Thursday night, as they swept the Thunderbolts with an 8-7 win in 10 innings.
Lake Erie (45-42) has now won six straight games at home while the loss for Windy City (31-55) was their seventh on their nine game road trip. Lake Erie is still 3.5 games out of the final wild card spot with nine games to play.
Najee Gaskins provided the heroics for Lake Erie, as he delivered a walk off RBI single in the bottom of the 10th inning to score Kenen Irizarry.
The Crushers fired the first shot for the second night in a row. After spoiling a bases loaded threat with one out in the first, Lake Erie plated the game's first run in the bottom of the second. Austin White started the inning with a single to center. Gaskins moved him to second on a sacrifice bunt before White stole third and he scored on a sacrifice fly from Casey Combs.
Jay Alvarez retired the first six batters he faced and tossed three scoreless innings before Windy City got on the board in the top of the fourth. Jake Boone reached on a one out single and stole second base before scoring on Peyton Isaacson's RBI single to left.
Lake Erie regained the lead the bottom of the fifth. Combs began the inning with a single to left and scored all the way from first on Sean Cheely's RBI double off the wall in center to give the Crushers a 2-1 advantage.
Windy City then put up a five run sixth inning to take the lead. Boone reached on an infield single and Jairus Richards reached on Connor Owings's error at third. Isaacson struck again for the T-Bolts with a two run double to give them the lead. Jonathan Nieves belted a run scoring single later in the inning and Kole Kaler smashed a two run double to bring in the final two runs of the frame.
The Crushers responded with a solo homer from DJ Stewart in the bottom of the sixth inning, his second of the year with the Crushers. Lake Erie added two more in the bottom of the seventh to pull within a run (6-5). Combs began the inning with a double and scored on a RBI single from Owings. Cheely reached on a one out single, advanced to second on the aforementioned single from Owings before stealing third and scoring on an errant throw from the catcher Matt Morgan.
Windy City had the bases loaded with nobody out in the eighth inning, but could only squeeze one run out of the threat. Isaacson led the inning off with a single before Morgan walked and Nieves singled to center to load the bases. Elliot Carney struck out Jalen Greer before he was replaced by Sam Curtis. Kaler delivered a sacrifice fly that scored Isaacson before Curtis struck out Dan Robinson to end the inning.
Lake Erie was down to their final out in the bottom of the ninth inning when Owings belted a single to right. Layne Schnitz-Paxton (3-6) then hit Kemuel Thomas-Rivera with a pitch and did the same to Jackson Valera to load the bases. Kenen Irizarry then smashed a double to the gap in left center which scored Owings and Thomas-Rivera to tie the game, but Valera was thrown out at home plate to send the game into extras.
After Alexis Rivero (2-1) worked a scoreless top half of the inning, Irizarry started the bottom of the 10th on second base. Stewart moved Irizarry to third on a sacrifice bunt and Gaskins drove him home with the game-winning RBI single up the middle.
Rivero picked up the win for the Crushers, while Schnitz-Paxton took the loss.
Six Crushers hit safely multiple times. Owings led the way, going 3-for-5 on the night to finish what was an incredible series for him at the plate where he went 9-for-15 with five runs scored and five RBI. Thomas-Rivera, Irizarry, Stewart, Combs and Cheely all turned in two hit games.
New York vs New Jersey
The New York Boulders used a six-run, sixth inning to grab a lead they would not relinquish as they completed a three-game sweep of the host New Jersey Jackals with an 11-7 win on Thursday at Yogi Berra Stadium on the campus of Montclair State University in Little Falls, NJ.
The loss brought down the curtain on the Jackals calling Yogi Berra Stadium their home. Earlier this month they announced that they would be moving to another location in New Jersey for the 2023 Frontier League season.
The Boulders entered the sixth inning trailing 7-4 but capitalized on three Jackals' errors to score six times on three hits. The big hits in the frame were an RBI single by Chris Kwitzer and a two-run double from Gabriel Garcia that gave New York a 10-7 lead.
The Jackals committed five errors in the game.
It became 11-7 in the seventh when Garcia knocked in his third run of the evening, this one on a single.
The Boulders went ahead 1-0 in the first inning, the run scoring on a double play grounder by Kwitzer. However, the Jackals answered in their half of the first with a two-run double by Alfredo Marte and a run-scoring single from Josh Rehwaldt that gave the home team a 3-1 advantage.
New York tied it with two runs on the second on RBI singles from Francisco Del Valle and Tucker Nathans; but New Jersey responded with an RBI single from Santiago Chirino in the bottom of the second to grab a 4-3 lead.
A Nathans RBI double would knot the game at 4-4 in the fourth.
The Jackals, though, would go ahead 7-4 on a three-run, fifth inning home run by Jason Agresti, his eighth of the season.
Robby Rowland started and grabbed the win for the Boulders despite allowing seven runs on 10 hits over five innings of work. He walked two and struck out five as he improved to 6-5 on the season.
Dylan Smith followed Rowland to the mound and tossed 3 1/3 hitless innings for the Boulders before issuing a pair of one-out walks in the ninth inning and yielding to Matt Leon, who retired Marte and Justin Wylie to end the contest.
Jefry Valdez, the third of five Jackals' pitchers on the night, was tagged with the loss after surrendering four runs (two earned) on three hits over only 1/3 of an innings. He walked one and did not strike out a batter as he fell to 1-2 on the year.
Tri-City vs Ottawa
Grant Larson (win, 6-4) tossed four shutout innings out of the bullpen, fueling an Ottawa Titans (49-38) come from behind 3-2 victory over the Tri-City ValleyCats on Thursday night.
Evan Grills (ND, 4-6) retired seven of the first eight he faced on the night before a one-out walk to Austin Bernard in the top of the third. The lefty was removed from the game following an apparent lower-body injury.
Summoned into a tough spot, Gavin Sonnier recorded the second out on a fielder's choice. Next, Brantley Bell lifted his 23rd homer of the year over the wall in left, putting the ValleyCats ahead 2-0. Leaving in line for the loss, Grills went two and a third, allowing one run, on no hits, walking one, and striking out four.
Offensively, the Titans put traffic on the base paths over the first three innings against righty Joey Gonzalez (ND, 8-2), but failed to score. In the fourth, Gonzalez allowed the bases to load up with nobody out for Clay Fisher.
Looking for a breakthrough, Fisher cashed in a run with a fielder's choice to left. With two on and one out, the Titans executed a double steal. Austin Bernard airmailed the throw into left field, allowing Jason Dicochea to score, tying the game at two. After an appeal of batter's interference, the call stood, and the game officially was tied.
After Sonnier's inning and two-thirds, Grant Larson mowed through the ValleyCats' lineup over four innings. The lefty only allowed a single to Pavin Parks and wound up facing the minimum. Larson's big outing saw the southpaw strikeout three, in his longest relief appearance of the season.
Neil Abbatiello (loss, 3-4) relieved Gonzalez in the eighth. The former Astros farmhand went seven innings, allowing one earned run, on five hits, walking two, and striking out four.
Jake Sanford lined a single to right with one away, as Tyrus Greene reached on an E7. The ValleyCats brought in righty Brett Hanewich, who got Dicochea to fly out for the second out. Fisher followed suit with a single that bounced into left, scoring Sanford to put the Titans ahead 3-2.
With a go-ahead run in the eighth for the second consecutive night, Kevin Escorcia (save, 15) struck out a pair to lock down the victory in the ninth.
Earning a split, the Titans now sit just a half-game back of the final playoff spot in the East Division, with nine games to go.
Empire State vs Sussex County
The Sussex County Miners defeated the Empire State Greys by a score of 1-0 in a highly defensive game with only one run being scored on Thursday night.
That only run came in the bottom of the fifth with Martin Figueroa singled to center field to drive in Alex Toral.
Johsson Arias would get charged with the loss for Empire State while Dwayne Marshall got the win while Tyler Thornton got the save for Sussex County.
Québec vs Trois-Rivières
The Trois-Rivières defeated the Quebec Capitales in a sudden death match where the Trois-Rivières Aigles came out on top winning 7-6 on Thursday night.
The Capitales got on the scoreboard first in the top of the third scoring four runs in the inning.
The Aigles would slowly start climbing back with scoring two runs in the bottom of the third making it 4-2.
Jeffry Paara would hit a double in the sixth and the eighth to add two more runs to Quebec's lead.
However, the Aigles would score three runs in the bottom of the eighth and tie the game would lead them to sudden death.
The Aigles would get the edge with scoring to lead them to their 7-6 win.
Washington vs Schaumburg
Chase Dawson hit a walk-off grand slam on a 3-2 pitch with two outs in the bottom of the ninth as the 2021 Frontier League Champion Schaumburg Boomers stole two-of-three from the Washington Wild Things at Wintrust Field by scoring an 8-4 win on Thursday.
Washington scored in the first inning for the third time in the series but the Boomers took a brief 2-1 lead in the fourth on homers from Mike Hart and Clint Hardy. Washington responded instantly with three runs in the fifth before the Boomers tied the contest in the bottom of the fifth. Neither team scored again until the Boomers loaded the bases for Dawson with two outs in the ninth.
Luis Perez started and worked 4.1 innings. Thomas Nicoll struck out three in 1.2 innings and Jake Joyce tossed three innings to earn the win.
Joliet vs Evansville
The Evansville Otters used a third-inning Justin Felix home run to complete the three-game sweep of the Joliet Slammers Thursday night with a 6-0 win.
The game sailed through the first couple of innings before the Otters used a bloop single from Andy Armstrong to kickstart the offense in the third. Justin Felix followed with a no-doubt two-run home run to left, giving the Otters a lead they would not surrender.
The game returned to back-to-back scoreless innings before the bullpens got involved. In the seventh when Alec Thomas entered the game for Joliet, the Evansville offense started to produce baserunners thanks to walks.
Suddenly, the Otters' lead grew to 4-0 after a pair of bases-loaded walks to Zach Biermann and J.R. Davis.
The final offense push came in the following at-bat with a two-run single from Dakota Phillips.
Evansville carried their 6-0 lead through the ninth, completing a three-game sweep over Joliet. The win marked the Otters' seventh sweep this season, their fifth at Bosse Field.
Zach Smith grabbed his second consecutive win for Evansville, pitching seven scoreless innings, allowing just four hits. Steve Moyers received the tough luck loss, allowing just two runs on the two-run home run from Felix.
Florence vs Gateway
The Gateway Grizzlies trailed 3-0 going to the bottom of the fifth inning against the Florence Y'alls on Wednesday night, but used clutch, two-out hitting to come all the way back for a 4-3 victory, as they secured a split of the abbreviated, two-game series at GCS Credit Union Ballpark
Gateway starter J.P. Williams (3-7) and Florence starter Edgar Martinez held the other team scoreless through the first three innings. In the top of the fourth inning, the Y'alls loaded the bases with two outs for Rodney Tennie, who got hit by a pitch to bring in the first run. After the Grizzlies left two men in scoring position in the bottom of the fourth, the Y'alls capitalized with two outs when Ethan Stern hit a two-run home run to extend the Florence lead to 3-0.
The Grizzlies responded in the bottom of the fifth when, with two outs, Isaac Benard singled and Kevin Krause drew a walk to bring up Zach Racusin, who drove in both runners on a triple to get the Grizzlies on the board and make it 3-2. In the next inning, Trevor Achenbach was hit by a pitch, and two batters later Alex Hernandez brought him home on another two-out RBI single to tie the ballgame at 3-3.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Grizzlies then took the lead for good- with two outs yet again and runners on first and second base, Abdiel Diaz singled up the middle to break the tie and give Gateway the 4-3 lead. The bullpen took it from there, with Sam Gardner and John Murphy combining for a pair of shutdown innings in the eighth and ninth as the Grizzlies secured the win.
The victory on the mound went to Williams, as he earned his first win since June 4 by tying his season- and career-high with seven innings, striking out five while allowing three runs. The save by Murphy was also his eighth on the year, while the Grizzlies reached the 40-win mark as a team for the first time since 2016 with the comeback at home.