McAdams belts sixth homer to help Crushers to sweep

From Lake Erie reports AVON, Ohio

— The Lake Erie Crushers, presented by Mercy, completed their second sweep of the season, as they came away with a 3-2 victory over the Normal Cornbelters at Sprenger Health Care Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The win for the Crushers (31-34) marked their second series sweep of the year, and ties their longest winning streak of the season at five games, while the loss for the Cornbelters (31-35) marked their fifth straight.

Normal fired the first shot, plating the game’s first run in the top of the second. Jesus Solarzano started the inning with a double to center. Diego Cedeno followed with a single through the left side to score Solarzano and give the Cornbelters a 1-0 lead.

Lake Erie used the long ball to answer in the bottom of the second. The first two batters of the inning were retired quickly, before former Calhoun High standout Josh McAdams smashed Edgar De La Rosa’s (2-4) 2-2 pitch over the wall in left for his sixth homer of the season, tying the game at 1-1.

Normal regained the lead in the top of the sixth. Cedeno reached on a one out single to center, and went from first to third on Craig Lepre’s single to left field. The next batter, Ty Morris, drove Cedeno home on a sacrifice fly-out to center.

Lake Erie used a clutch, two-out extra base hit to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth. Jordan Dean and Sean Hurley both reached on free passes, and Connor Oliver drove them both home with a two-out double off the wall in right to give the Crushers their first lead of the game.

Payton Lobdell (5-6) turned in a gutsy performance, battling his way through six innings to score the victory. He allowed just a pair of runs on eight hits while striking out three. Austin Sweet tossed two scoreless innings of relief, and Chandler Jagodzinski (14) worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning to grab the save. De La Rosa took the loss after allowing three runs on five hits while striking out six over 5.2 innings of work.

On a day where hits were tough to come by for the Crushers, Kalawaia led the way with a pair of base hits, going 2-for-4.

Culberson drives in two for OKC OKLAHOMA CITY

— The Tacoma Rainiers scored seven runs through four innings and tallied five runs in two separate innings Saturday night on the way to a 14-9 win against the Oklahoma City Dodgers at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark.

Tacoma broke a scoreless tie with five runs in the third inning and scored two more runs in the fourth inning to extend to a 7-0 advantage.

The Dodgers responded with five runs in the fifth inning to cut the Rainiers’ lead to two runs, but that would be the closest the Dodgers would come on the scoreboard.

Tacoma outscored Oklahoma City 7-4 over the final four frames in front of a crowd of 9,610 as the Dodgers allowed their highest run total since a 15-11 loss to Omaha June 15.

Zach Shank led off with a single for the first hit of the night for either team, as the first seven batters of the inning reached for the Rainiers on four singles, two walks and a hit by pitch.

Taylor Motter hit a RBI single with the bases loaded to score the game’s first run. Daniel Vogelbach then drew a bases-loaded walk, Gordon Beckham added a RBI single and D.J. Peterson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to boost Tacoma to a 4-0 advantage.

Danny Muno followed and grounded into a double play that allowed another run to score for a 5-0 lead.

The Dodgers got on the scoreboard in the fifth inning. Infielder Edwin Rios collected a one-out single for the first hit of the night for Oklahoma City (56-49). Todd Cunningham was hit by a pitch and Bobby Wilson drew a walk to load the bases. Former Calhoun High standout Charlie Culberson came up to bat next and lined a double off the front of the Budweiser Deck in left field that allowed Oklahoma City’s first two runs of the night to score.

Alex Verdugo followed with a walk and became the fifth straight Dodger to reach base with one out to load the bases again. Scott Van Slyke then hit a fly ball to center field for a sacrifice fly that allowed a run to score.