Crushers commit six errors, hand Washington 12

After breaking a 10-game losing streak Aug. 8, the Lake Erie Crushers looked to build on the win by taking the second of three games against the Washington Wild Things on Aug. 9.

The game got off to an ominous start with hazy skies and an early deficit. While The Crushers came back to tie the game, horrible defense did them in with a disheartening, 12-4 loss to the Wild Things, with four of six errors coming in the seventh inning.

“It was not a very clean game,” Lake Erie manager Jared Lemieux said. “They took advantage of our errors and we made way too many.”

PHOTOS: Crushers vs. Washington, Aug. 9, 2023

With one out in the first inning, Crushers starter Matt Mulhearn served up a home run to Washington’s Wes Darville that went into the right-field bounce house area.

For an inning and a half, the Crushers and Wild Things put zeros up on the board until Wagner Lagrange smacked a ball to deep center field that one-hopped the fence for a ground-rule double. That put up two more runs for Washington in the third inning for a 3-0 lead early on and 4-0 a batter later.

A spark of life finally came from cleanup hitter Josh Rego, who barely cleared the wall in fair territory in the bottom of the fourth for a three-run jack and close the gap to one run with Washington.

He came up big an inning later, knocking in the tying run with two outs with a base knock to make it 4-4 at the end of five frames.

That tie was short-lived, with Scotty Dubrule reaching base on an error and coming around to score on a one-out double by Robert Chayka to make it 5-4 Wild Things.

In the seventh, a sharp grounder back to the mound was fielded by Lake Erie’s Thomas Bruss. He looked around the bases before firing the ball home and wide of the catcher to allow two runners in. With the next batter up, shortstop Jarrod Watkins fielded a routine hopper and threw the ball at the feet of second baseman Sam Frontino to allow the eighth run.

In the end, the Crushers allowed six runs on four errors in the seventh inning.

Before the night ended, second baseman Sam Frontino came on in relief for the ninth and allowed a home run to pinch hitter Tomas Sanchez to make it 12-4 with two down.

Lake Erie will come back Aug. 10 with a chance to right the ship and take the rubber match.

“We’ve got a chance to win a series tomorrow,” Lemieux nodded. “That is the beautiful thing about (baseball). You can’t hang your head over it. Okay, we lost the game, onto the next one. We’ll see how these guys rebound.”

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