Sunday, September 05, 2010 Crushers Crush Kings in Finale

Print Email RSS Share

AVON, Ohio — The Lake Erie Crushers finished off the 2010 season with an 8-0 shutout of the Kalamazoo Kings to win their eighth in a row, a franchise record, before a Fan Appreciation Night crowd of 3,621.

Starting pitcher Matt Smith stole the spotlight in his final appearance of the season. Smith carried a no-hitter into the seventh inning with two outs before a comebacker off the bat of Jeff Helps deflected away from the righty, resulting in an infield single. The hit was the only one Smith would allow in the game. He struck out a franchise record 12 in throwing a complete game shutout, the first complete game shutout of the season.

The offense provided plenty of support, banging out 11 hits. Lake Erie scored in five of their eight at bats including two first inning runs to set the tone. Dom Duggan led off with a single, stole second, and scored on a Lee Huggins RBI single to left. Matt Sutton lifted a sacrifice fly to score Andrew Davis later in the inning. Davis plated Duggan, who had singled and stolen a base earlier in the inning, in the third with a sacrifice fly.

After a run scored on an error in the fourth, three doubles stretched the lead to 6-0 in the fifth. Matt Sutton doubled home Andrew Davis and Raphael Turner doubled in Davis. Julio Rivera and Casey McGrew drove in runs in the seventh to finish the scoring.

Dom Duggan, Raphael Turner, Julio Rivera, and Casey McGrew each recorded two hits in the game.

Lake Erie finished their second year in the Frontier League with a record of 50-46.

EXTRA SWINGS

- The crowd was the 18th of over 3,500 fans this summer

- The shutout was the franchise record ninth of the year for the Crushers and just the second complete game shutout in team history; Kevin Skogley pitched a complete game shutout on July 5 of 2009

- The Crushers finished with an ERA of 3.56

- Dom Duggan finished the year with a franchise record and league best 48 stolen bases

- Julio Rivera was catching because Joel Collins today joined the York Revolution of the Atlantic League and was 1-for-4 in his debut

by Tim Calderwood