The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Lake Erie shut out by Windy City at home
There are many variables in baseball, including the dreaded rainout. Mother Nature made an appearance once again as Lake Erie finished off a continuation of a suspended game from June 30 due to rain, only to be delayed an hour and a half for the scheduled nightcap due to severe weather.
After Game 1 resumed scoreless in the bottom of the third inning, Lake Erie’s offense was held to just two hits as they came up short, falling to the Windy City ThunderBolts, 3-0 at Sprenger Stadium on Aug. 20.
Windy City wasted little time as Micah Coffey notched a sacrifice fly, scoring Michael Mateja in the bottom of the third inning. The ThunderBolts stretched the lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth with a sacrifice fly from Tyler Straub and tacked on one more for good measure in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI double from Tyler Alamo, upping the lead to 3-0.
Lake Erie’s offense couldn’t figure out starting pitcher Chris Washington back on June 30 and continued to struggle in the continuation as they were flustered by Joel Toribio for three innings. That combination equaled just two hits for the Crushers through six innings.
Toribio, who took over in the bottom of the third, went four innings, allowing one hit while striking out four and walking one.
Sean Leland and Blake Hickman finished off the next three innings, respectively, tallying three strikeouts while not allowing a hit.
Jake Repavich picked up the loss for the Crushers, allowing three runs off five while walking one and striking out one.
“Toribio, he wasn’t the same guy we see out of the bullpen at a 93-95 type guy, he was more 90 and he did a good job of keeping us offbalance,” Lake Erie manager Cam Roth said. “It was a suspended game that there was maybe some guys that were out of the order so to speak, then you will see in the second game.”
All three of Lake Erie’s baserunners came with two outs. Zach Racusin and Bryan DeLaRosa each tallied a single.
“It’s hard to build anything when you have two outs, it’s not impossible by any means but it’s obviously a lot easier to do it when you have zero or one outs,” Roth said. “I thought we hit some balls really well. I thought we hit some balls hard, they just made plays.”
Windy City looked comfortable in the batter’s box, tallying eight hits. Despite their record, Roth knew the ThunderBolts would be a challenge.
“They are a much better team than when we played them on June 30, I’ll tell you that,” Roth said. “Those hitters and that lineup and just the way we swung the bat… the bottom line is we got two hits in just six innings. It’s going to be a tough one right off the bat to try to get any momentum or anything like that.”
After Game 1, the Crushers remain four games ahead of Schaumburg for first place in the East Division.
Their magic number to clinch the division is 13.