Lake Erie Crushers fall to Schaumburg in 6

It turns out a 90-minute rain delay wasn’t worth the wait for the Lake Erie Crushers.

Having zero hits until the seventh inning, the Crushers nearly battled back from a 6-0 deficit, but were defeated by the Schaumburg Boomers, 6-4, on Aug. 17.

The Frontier League made sure to get this series finale in with the visiting Boomers fighting for playoff contention. An already long night was made much longer for the Crushers (32-49). The delay was announced right before game time and both teams had to wait it out.

“You got to have some resolve and stay ready. It’s something that happens in this game, and the old saying is ‘hurry up and wait’ in baseball,” Crushers manager Jared Lemieux said. “Tonight was one of those nights.”

Another short rain delay happened in the sixth inning, and most of the fans had left the stadium at the point. There was no buzz in Mercy Health Stadium, and it seemed impossible for the Crushers to even be in this game. A home run each in the seventh and eighth innings helped them get back in it, but it was too deep of a hole out of which to climb.

The Boomers got off to a fast start. Alec Craig led off the game with a single, and Chase Dawson smashed a two-run homer into right field two batters later. He scored the winning run in the 11-inning game the night before and picked up right where he left off.

Schaumburg’s bats continued rolling in the third inning against Crushers pitcher Jonaiker Villalobos. Travis Holt led off with a single, and Dawson notched his second hit of the game on the next at-bat. Both runners advanced on an error, and Holt scored following a sacrifice RBI from Gaige Howard. With two outs, Dawson scored on a wild pitch to extend the lead to 4-0.

It was the same story in the fourth with two singles to begin the inning from Zach Huffins and Will Prater. John Fiorenza flew out to right field, but got the sacrifice RBI as Huffins crossed home plate.

If the 90-minute delay wasn’t enough to start the game, the rain came down in the sixth inning to cause another short one. At this point, the Boomers led, 5-0, and were outhitting the Crushers, 10-0. Even with new Lake Erie pitcher Shane Gustafson entering the game, the base hits continued for Schaumburg. Another run was tacked on with an RBI single from Kokko Figueiredo.

Finally in the seventh inning, the Crushers got their first hit. Boomers pitcher Luis Perez was lights out until Sean Cheely connected on a ball to right field. Huffins had a chance to catch it out there at the warning track, but Cheely was rewarded a hit.

It was close to being an error, but Jackson Pritchard left no doubt of the no-hitter on the next at-bat with a two-run blast to get Lake Erie on the board. Kenen Irizarry also carried a deep ball into right field, but was just shy of the wall and caught for the third out. Perez’s night was done after the seventh.

Even with nearly no fans in the stadium, the Crushers weren’t done just yet. After the Boomers took out Perez in favor of reliever Jake Joyce, the hits were coming.

Scout Knotts led off the bottom of the eighth with a walk and advanced to third on two straight groundouts. The two-out rally started in a big way with a two-run home run from Jarrod Watkins to cut the deficit to 6-4. Both Cheely and Pritchard then hit singles to put the tying run on base.

“Their starting pitcher did a very good job — you have to tip your cap. He held us at bay all the way until the seventh,” Lemieux said. “But it was nice to see us fight back a little bit and keep swinging it. We hit some other balls hard, but they just didn’t find the ground. That’s how close this game ended up being.”

Joyce then beaned pinch hitter Zach Racusin on the first pitch of the at-bat to load the bases. Back to the top of the order with Jiandido Tromp, he got a hold of one of those swings that Lemieux mentioned, but it was caught in center field to retire the side.

With one last chance in the ninth, the game ended fittingly with the Crushers’ bats coming up empty. Dylan Stutsman picked up the save for the Boomers by striking out the side.

Lake Erie is back at home for a weekend series against the Gateway Grizzlies. The first game begins at 7:05 p.m. Aug. 18.

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