Crushers use long ball to top Grizzlies

The Crushers stifled a lateinning rally to top Gateway for a 7-4 Frontier League win.

Lake Erie used a power surge to get a lead, then hung on.

Cody Lenahan hit a pair of tworun home runs, while Josh McAdams hit a two-run shot and a solo blast. The Crushers stifled a lateinning rally to top Gateway for a 7-4 Frontier League win in front of 1,612 fans at Sprenger Stadium on June 11. Lake Erie was 4-2 on its homestand.

“It’s nice to see Cody and Josh both hitting the ball, elevating it and getting it out of the ballpark,” Lake Erie Manager Cameron Roth said. “I do (feel good about going 4-2). Southern Illinois and Gateway are playing good baseball. To have four wins at home is great.”

Grizzlies starter Will Anderson had a 1-0 lead, then ran into trouble in the second inning. Sean Hurley single and scored on Lenahan’s first home run of the game, which went over the right field fence.

History repeated itself in the fourth inning with Hurley walking and Lenahan hitting his second two-run homer. This one cleared the center field fence 400 feet away.

Lake Erie (12-15) wasn’t done. Tanner Lubach walked and McAdams blasted the third home run off Anderson to give the Crushers a 6-1 lead.

McAdams capped the barrage of long balls with a solo blast to left-center in the bottom of the sixth to give the Crushers a 7-1 lead.

“It was one of those things where we all had an approach,” McAdams said. “It was a matter of executing our approaches. Pretty much jump on the fastball early. We’re capable of putting the ball in play.

With the temperature in the upper 80s and the wind blowing out, the thought of the long ball was there.

“Just coming out here and you see the wind blowing out and it’s hot out. That is always one of the things on your mind,” Lenahan said. “It’s looking for fastballs and being aggressive. Looking for something up in the zone and taking advantage of it.”

After giving up a run in the first inning and three hits, Lake Erie starter Jordan Kurokawa settled in and stifled Gateway’s offense. Over the next five innings, Kurokawa retired 15 of the next 17 batters, including a stretch of 10 in a row.

Gateway tried to mount a rally in the top of the seventh with back-to-back singles to start the inning. But a 4-6-3 double play and a line-out thwarted the rally. Kurokawa went seven strong innings, scattering seven hits and striking out five.

“Jordan has been throwing the ball well,” Roth said. “We’re been working on some things … just really utilizing his fastball command for his strength instead of using curveballs and changeups.

“We’ve talking about it before about being able to get ahead with your fastball. Pitch off your fastball instead of pitching off a different pitch.”

Gateway scored a pair of runs in the top of the eighth inning and had the tying run at the plate in the top of the ninth. However, Chandler Jagodzinski induced a 4-6-3 double play to preserve the win and earn his seventh save.

Lake Erie is off June 12 and starts a six-game road trip June 13 in Evansville.