Eighth-inning rally ends six-game losing streak

In the midst of the Lake Erie Crushers’ six-game losing streak, when they got good pitching, the hitting failed and vice versa.

On June 21 against Washington at Sprenger Stadium, manager Cam Roth could breathe a sigh of relief, because he finally got both clicking in a 6-3 comeback win.

In the eighth and down, 3-2, the Crushers’ Jordan Dean beat out a close play at first base after Washington’s third baseman sailed a throw.

That set up DH Brandon Murray’s single and Sean Hurley’s walk to load the bases, followed by third baseman Cody Lenahan’s clutch two-run single for a 4-3 lead.

A few batters later, catcher

Connor Oliver tacked on a two-run double to give the Crushers a 6-3 lead.

Closer Chandler Jagodzinski shut the door for his ninth save of the year.

Starter Payton Lobdell went six strong innings, yielding four hits, three earned and seven strikeouts.

“It’s a huge relief,” Lenahan said. “We had a tough week on the road last week and we hung in there long enough to give ourselves a chance to pull it off today. I was looking for a fastball and mostly to just get a sac fly, and he actually threw me a slider. I stayed on it long enough to poke it over

the shortstop.

“Last night didn’t go our way and we’re going to continue to fight until things go our way like tonight. The thing about baseball is things can change on the dime whether it be losing games and finally starting to rack up some wins or on a personal level when you’re struggling, things can change quickly.”

It was exactly the spark Roth has been looking for.

“We’ve had two big time outings in a row from our pitchers,” he said. “Clean defense and much better approach at the plate. It carried over and pitching and defense will win. Period. We’re last in defense and hitting and that can’t happen. We have to climb that ladder. Another quality baseball game from

both teams tonight.”

The Crushers offense got going in the bottom of the second, getting the first two batters on before center fielder Connor Oliver knocked one in and catcher Tanner Lubach followed with an RBI for a 2-0 lead.

The Wild Things responded in the top of the third getting an RBI single from Rashad Brown.

Washington did its damage in the top of the sixth. With one man on, left fielder Bralin Jackson evened things with an RBI, followed by first baseman Kane Sweeney, who hit a grand slam in Game 1, ripping an RBI-double for a 3-2 lead.

Wild Things starter Chase Cunningham tossed 5 1/3 innings for two earned runs. The Crushers

had seven total hits.

“It was a great team win,” Lenahan added. “Pitchers did a good job because they kept us in it and that was awesome.”