The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Lake Erie captures fourth win in a row
Lobdell pitches well as Crushers enjoy longest winning streak of year
It took Lake Erie five innings to get things going offensively, but the Crushers erupted for three runs in the fifth and didn’t look back for a 4-1 victory over Florence on July 8 for the team’s first four-game winning streak of the season.
Getting the best of starter
Payton Lobdell going, the Crushers played tight defense and supported Lobdell as he went six innings and gave up the Freedom’s lone run of the game in the first inning.
“Overall I felt pretty good. Defense helped me out tremendously, had a lot of good plays
behind me,” Lobdell said. “Offense came to life here in the fourth inning and fifth inning so it was real good to see.”
Working hard with the Crushers’ coaching staff, manager Cam Roth had high praise for the behind-the-scenes work Lobdell has done to have an impactful outing when his team needed him most.
“I think it was a momentum shift for the whole team as far as confidence behind this guy, not that he’s necessarily been bad the last couple of starts. It’s just been shaky,” Roth said. “He’s been one away from really doing something special and then all of the sudden he pieced it together today.
“That’s a tough hitting team. They swing the bat well and I think that was their optimal lineup who they put in there and for Lobdell to go out there and do what he did is pretty special. We’ve been working on a couple of things, Michael and him just trying to get that arm out there on time and be able to get downhill a little bit more consistently and I think you saw that for sure today.”
The Crushers’ offense took a while to get things going against rookie starter Enrique Zamora, but it all came together in the fifth when L.J. Kalawaia nicked Zamora for an RBI single for the first hit of the game. Jordan followed up shortly after with an RBI double before Sean Hurley sent home the third run of the inning to give Lobdell a boost on the bump.
“I think their guy started off really well and from a true rookie, that’s what you want to see out of that guy too. So kudos to him for holding us to for four innings,” Roth said.
“We were just able to string an offensive approach together and just get to him a little bit, but other than that it was just starting pitching and defense right out the chute did it for us.”
Relieving Lobdell in front of a healthy ovation from the 1,563 on hand was Andrew Utterback, who tossed two scoreless innings and didn’t give up a hit.
Closer Chandler Jagodzinski slammed the door thanks to the help of a 4-3-6-2-4 double play that helped to sit the Freedom down and collect a third straight series win.
With just one game left before the All-Star break, the Crushers are hitting a good groove, just not at the time Roth wanted it to happen.
“The response to that is, I would like to keep playing and not take a break,” Roth said. “It’s just something we’re going to have to do as a staff and those guys, we’re going to have to mentally lock back in when we get back here is the only thing.”