Hurley gives Lake Erie a power boost

One of the biggest struggles for the Lake Erie Crushers in 2016 was power numbers.

Hanging near the bottom of the league in home runs for most of the season, the Crushers were missing a big bat in the middle of the lineup for most of the season after the departure of outfielder Connor Oliver. With the big changing of the guard midway through the season to new manager Cam Roth, the Crushers also brought in a new bat in Sean Hurley.

Standing in at commanding

6-foot-4 and 235 pounds, Hurley has become the guy to fear in the Lake Erie lineup. Leading the team in RBI with 14 and tied for the team lead with four home runs, Hurley has taken to a fresh season with the Crushers with a more patient approach to find success in Lake Erie’s slow start.

“This offseason I really took the initiative to really work my butt off and do everything I had to do, but more so I think as a whole we focused on having good at-bats,” Hurley said. “We’ve lost more games than we’ve wanted to and it’s still really early, but as a whole, we’re just focusing on not putting too much pressure on ourselves, staying within our at-bats. And whenever I have a successful game, if you watch in the stands, it’s because I’m not chasing pitches out of the zone. That’s all it is.”

Getting clued in with the coaching staff and hitting coach Austin Gallagher, Hurley credits a lot of his new improvements to Gallagher and his expertise and being in the four-hole.

“He’s similar to myself where they pitched him the same way in this league the same way they’re gonna pitch me,” Hurley said. “It definitely helps getting those little tricks that he teaches me. I wish I could tell you all of them, but it would spoil it is all I can tell you.”

Working this offseason was a big boost to Hurley’s game, especially with the training he has had.

Selected in the 24th round of the 2013 MLB draft by the Toronto Blue Jays, Hurley had a productive minor league career in which he accrued 14 home

runs and 62 RBI during three seasons in affiliated ball.

Knowing he is working his way to get back in a big-league system, Hurley said the competition of the league has really helped him elevate his game to give this season everything he has to offer.

“At first, I knew there was going to be some competition in the outfield, so that was good because it motivated me to work harder in the offseason and make me lock it in that much more,” Hurley said. “Now, it’s taking it game by game and pitch by pitch and making sure I’m not swinging at a slider in the dirt.”

A bright spot on this struggling Crushers team, Hurley is a big believer in his manager as well as his teammates. Knowing that things haven’t been going the team’s way early on, Hurley said he knows this team is more than capable of busting out of this slump if they feed off one another.

“We have those innings where we get fired up, like in Joliet where we scored seven runs in an inning and we had similar stints, especially in spring training and against Washington we had one as well,” Hurley said. “No matter who it is, just one guy has a big hit and then the guys behind him feeding off that and putting three or four good at-bats together in a row.

“The games we’ve struggled a lot, it’s because we get one-two-three out and the pitcher’s right back out there versus even if a guy gets on by an error, the next guy has a nice, long at-bat just to slow the game down.”

Needing to get off a fourgame losing skid, the Crushers got a big win on June 4 on the road and came home after a day off on Monday to take a close one 2-1 victory over Southern Illinois, thanks to a tremendous effort by Hurley and starting pitcher Jordan Kurokawa.

Getting things going early, Hurley gave the Crushers a 1-0 lead in the home half of the first on an RBI double that scored Jordan Dean. Working with a lead, Kurokawa threw hard stuff low and over the plate all night on his way to a seven-inning performance and surrendered just one run.

“It felt really good from the first inning. Wasn’t really thinking about it too much, just throwing the ball in and letting my talent do the work,” Kurokowa said. “It was a great team win for us and it’s good anytime you can get a team win like that.”

In the eighth, Lake Erie’s Josh McAdams ripped a long single with Parker Norris on base and a throwing error by the Miners trying to catch McAdams advancing to second allowed Norris to score the eventual game-winning run.

“It was a big hit by Parker Norris coming in right off the bench and getting a knock for us and getting able to get on first base with his athleticism,” Roth said. “It was a big hit for McAdams. He was able to stay on a pitch, see it up.”

“I think Jordan (Kurokawa) came out and did a heck of a job and those guys more so wanted to get him the win and (Keegan) Ghidotti did a heck of a job and they know each other and they know if you’ve been struggling or you’re really out there battling for us, then those guys take that into account. It was a good momentum change because we have been on the bad end of a lot of those close games. Proud of the guys today.”