CRUSHERS COME BACK TO BEAT OTTERS
AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers made a pair of three run deficits disappear at Mercy Health Stadium on Tuesday morning as they came from behind to defeat the Evansville Otters, 6-4. The victory for the Crushers (26-35) was their eighth in a series opener and the loss for the Otters (34-26) was their fourth straight against the Crushers in Avon this season. Evansville capitalized on a pair of Lake Erie errors to score their first three runs of the game in the top of the second. Jomar Reyes started the inning with a single and made his way to second after Crushers shortstop Jarrod Watkins could not handle a throw at second from second baseman Kemuel Thomas-Rivera. Moments later, on a John Dyer bunt, an errant throw from catcher Jackson Pritchard allowed Reyes to score to give Evansville the lead. George Callil and Kona Quiggle brought in the final two runs of the inning on RBI singles. Lake Erie answered with their first run of the game in the bottom of the second. Watkins provided the fireworks with a solo homer to right, his second of the season. The Otters came right back with a run in the top of the third inning to take a 4-1 lead. Jeffrey Baez started the inning with a double to right, and he came around to score on Ethan Skender's two out RBI single to left. From that point forward, the Crushers limited the Otters to just two hits. The long ball was Lake Erie's source of runs in the bottom of the third as they began their comeback. Solo homers from Jiandido Tromp and Todd Isaacs Jr. brought the Crushers back within a run (4-3). Both homered to left, for Tromp it was his second and it was Isaacs's third bomb of the season. Tromp came through again for Lake Erie in the bottom of the fourth. Pritchard walked to start the inning and advanced to second on a single from Scout Knotts. Austin White reached on a fielder's choice to move Pritchard to third and he scored the game tying run on Tromp's RBI groundout. A clutch two out hit from Tromp gave Lake Erie the lead for good in the bottom of the sixth. Pritchard started the rally with a one out single to left. Knotts followed with a double to the gap in right center, and with two outs, Tromp struck again as he belted a two run single to center to score Pritchard and Knotts to give Lake Erie a 6-4 lead. Perry Bewley (2-0) tossed two scoreless innings of one hit relief and fanned three batters to secure the win. Trevor Kuncl held the lead with a perfect eighth inning in relief and Alexis Rivero (6) tossed a 1-2-3 ninth to get the save. Justin Watland (6-4) took the loss after allowing six runs on nine hits with seven strikeouts over 5.1 innings. Four Crushers hit safely multiple times. Tromp drove in four runs, making him the first Crusher to accomplish that feat this season. He went 2-for-4 at the top of the order with a run and the four RBI. Isaacs went 2-for-4 with the solo homer and a bunt base hit, while Thomas-Rivera went 2-for-4 as well and Knotts went 2-for-4 with a single and a double.
The Florence Y'alls (25-36), presented by Towne Properties, fell behind in the middle innings and never led en route to a 13-4 series-opening defeat to the Québec Capitales (38-22) at Thomas More Stadium on Tuesday. Pitching dominated the game through the first three innings. Facing Capitales starter Abdiel Saldana (6.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 K) who entered the game on a 25.0-inning streak without allowing an earned run, the Y'alls were sat down quickly through a scoreless first three times up. Québec finally broke through with a big third inning against Y'alls starter Bobby Brabrand (5.0 IP, 6 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 4 K). A leadoff home run from third baseman T.J. White got the Capitales on the board before a walk to right fielder Justin Gideon and a single from designated hitter Juremi Profar put two aboard with nobody out. Two batters later, shortstop Kyle Crowl singled in Gideon to extend the Capitales' lead. Center fielder Marc-Antoine Lebreux then tripled to score both runners on base and put Québec in front 4-0. With Lebreux at third, former Y'all and first baseman Bryan Leef hit a sacrifice fly to score the runner and cap the scoring at 5-0. Québec tacked on another run in the fifth when second baseman David Glaude hit a two-out RBI single. Trailing 6-0, the Y'alls mounted offense against the Capitales. In the sixth, Florence broke Abdiel Saldana's earned run scoreless streak at 30.1 IP with a run-scoring fielder's choice off the bat of third baseman Brian Fuentes. With second baseman Tristin Garcia at third base, designated hitter Brennan Price followed up Fuentes' at-bat with a sacrifice fly to score the second Florence run of the night. After six innings, Québec led 6-2. In the seventh, the Y'alls scored again when shortstop Ed Johnson doubled, stole third, then scored on a wild pitch for his first professional run. However, the Y'alls would not come any closer and suffered through a long Capitales rally in the eighth. Facing Y'alls lefthander Alex Theis, Québec brought 10 hitters to the plate and scored seven runs to put the game out of reach. Kyle Crowl's three-run home run finished off a high-scoring rally that put the Capitales ahead 13-3.
The Washington Wild Things dropped the first game of their six game homestand 4-2 against the New Jersey Jackals after scoring for the first time in the bottom of the ninth and getting the tying run on and in scoring position in the frame after that. Kobe Foster performed well once again pitching six complete innings giving up three runs on seven hits and striking out four along the way. It was Foster's fifth quality start of the season. All of Foster's earned runs came via the long ball by the Jackals three times in the first three innings of this night-time matchup. The Washington offense was silent through most of this one until a ninth-inning, two-run blast off the bat of Andrew Czech made it a 4-2 game. Despite the attempted comeback by the Wild Things, the offense couldn't finish the job. The game ended with the bases full.
The Schaumburg Boomers rallied from a three-run deficit to knock off the Ottawa Titans in the opener of a three-game series by a 7-5 final on Tuesday night at Wintrust Field. Ottawa struck rapidly in the top of the first, posting three hits and a walk to open an early 3-0 lead. The Boomers stranded runners at second and third in the bottom of the frame but were able to get on the board in the second. Kyle Fitzgerald led off with a triple and crossed the plate on an RBI single from Kokko Figueiredo. Ottawa responded quickly with a run in the third to extend the edge to 4-1. Travis Holt pulled the Boomers within a run at 4-3 with a two-out two-run double in the bottom of the fifth. Facing the bullpen in the seventh, Schaumburg scored four runs to take the lead. Chase Dawson pushed an 0-2 offering through the left side of the infield to score a pair and give the Boomers the edge. Blake Berry followed with an RBI single through nearly the same spot. A homer from Taylor Wright made the score 7-5 and Ottawa had the tying runs on in the ninth but the Boomers held on for the decision. Aaron Glickstein worked six innings and finished with four walks and four strikeouts. Juan Pichardo earned his second victory in relief with a scoreless seventh. Kristian Scott tossed the eighth and Dylan Stutsman shut the door in the ninth for his fifth save. Dawson posted two hits as the Boomers finished with eight.
The Gateway Grizzlies scored six runs combined in their first three turns at bat on Tuesday night at Grizzlies Ballpark, coming back from an early 3-0 deficit and beating the Windy City ThunderBolts 7-4 to break up a six-game losing streak. Things started rocky for Zac Ryan (3-2) in the top of the first, as the Grizzlies starter allowed three hits and two walks, including a three-run home run by Micah Yonamine that put the ThunderBolts up 3-0, but the right-hander locked down from there, eventually pitching a career-high seven innings while also tying his career-best with six strikeouts in earning his third win of the year on the mound. The Grizzlies responded to the three-run hole in the bottom of the first inning when they scored three runs themselves on an RBI single by Eric Rivera and a two-run, two-out, game-tying homer by Andrew Penner. In the second inning, Abdiel Diaz hit an RBI double off the left field wall to score a hustling Willie Estrada all the way from first base to put the home team up for good at 4-3, and Gateway expanded the advantage to 6-3 in the bottom of the third inning thanks to an RBI single from Penner and a sacrifice fly by Kyle Gaedele, playing in his first pro contest since 2018. Ryan took care of the rest, and the Grizzlies' bullpen backed him up after an insurance RBI single by Jairus Richards made it 7-3 in the sixth inning. Matt Valin and Alec Whaley set up Josh Lucas in the ninth, with the latter recording his second save of the season as Gateway maintained their one-game lead atop the Frontier League's West Division in taking the series opener.
The Tri-City ValleyCats (37-24) smoked five home runs in a 14-5 victory over the Joliet Slammers (27-34) on Tuesday at Joseph L. Bruno Stadium. Joliet got on the board in the second. Christian Fedko led off the frame with a single off Dwayne Marshall. Kyle Novak then walked. Oscar Campos tried to backpick Novak but threw the ball away, allowing Fedko to score and give the Slammers a 1-0 lead. Tri-City responded with a seven-run second. Oscar Campos singled off Ryan O'Reilly, and Ian Walters belted his ninth homer of the year. Jaxon Hallmark reached on an error, and stole second. Pavin Parks left the stadium with a two-run jack — his first since June 21 in Quebec against the Capitales, and seventh of the season. Cito Culver walked, and Jakob Goldfarb launched a two-run tater, his ninth of the 2023 campaign. Juan Kelly, in his ValleyCats debut, followed suit with a solo shot to make it a 7-1 affair; between the Trois-Rivieres Aigles and Tri-City, it was his fourth long ball of the season. Goldfarb manufactured a run in the fourth. He got hit by a pitch, stole second and third before coming around on an infield single from Kelly to provide the 'Cats with an 8-1 lead. Joliet made it a close game in the fifth. Zach Biermann and Christian Fedko walked. Novak singled to load the bases. Matt McGarry lifted a sac fly as Fedko tagged up to third, and Novak advanced to second on an error from Campos. Lane Baremore drove in a pair with a two-run double to cut the deficit to 8-4. Tri-City retaliated in the bottom of the fifth. Lamar Briggs picked up a double. Tanner Smith had a single, and moved to second as Briggs was cut down at the plate 5-2. Hallmark singled, and Smith went to third. Parks ripped an RBI single to send Hallmark to third. Culver lifted a sac fly to put the ValleyCats on top, 10-4. Joliet tacked on a run in the sixth. Liam McArthur greeted Brac Warren with a single. GJ Hill singled McArthur to third. Warren threw the ball away on a pickoff attempt, which prompted McArthur to score, and trim the deficit to 10-5. Tri-City broke the game open again in the sixth. Brad VanAdslen walked Briggs, and Smith singled before Hallmark drilled a three-run blast, his eighth of the 2023 campaign, to put the ValleyCats on top, 13-5. Tri-City collected another run in the eighth. McGarry walked Campos, who moved to second on a groundout from Walters. McGarry balked, and Campos went to third. Smith lifted a sac fly to make it a 14-5 affair. Marshall (6-1) earned the win. He tossed five frames, giving up four runs, two earned on six hits, walking six, and striking out two. Warren hurled three innings, yielding an unearned run, and Elliot Carney shut the door with a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out two. O'Reilly (0-2) received the loss. He pitched 4.2 innings, allowing 10 runs, five earned on 12 hits, walking three, and striking out two.
