Thursday, August 23, 2012 Offensive explosion

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Offensive explosion

Crushers clobber Road Warriors, 17-5

AVON, Ohio – The Lake Erie Crushers set seasons highs with 17 runs and 23 hits at All Pro Freight Stadium on Thursday evening, as they took the rubber match in their season finale with the Road Warriors, 17-5.

The victory for the Crushers (50-37) marks their sixth in their last seven games and gives them sole possession of the Frontier League’s final wild card spot. The loss for the Road Warriors (7-20) was their fourth in six games against the Crushers this season.

The game was tight over the first three innings, until the Crushers ran away in the middle three frames.  Lake Erie plated five in the fourth, five again in the fifth, and two more in the sixth. 

Andrew Davis went 5-for-5 on the night, homered twice, scored five times, and came a triple away from the cycle.  Davis’s first homer of the night began the bottom of the second to snap a scoreless tie. 

The Road Warriors took their only lead of the night, plating two runs in the top of the third.  Jacob Daniel was hit by a pitch, and scored the tying run on David Roney’s RBI single.  Roney scored the go ahead run moments later on Tanner Leighton’s sacrifice fly.  

The Crushers scored five times on four hits in the bottom of the fourth inning to take the lead for good.  Davis, Russ Moldenhauer and Robby Kuzdale started the inning with three straight singles to load the bases, before Kyle Weldon’s sacrifice fly scored Davis to tie the game.  Brian Erie then delivered the backbreaker, with a Grand Slam, his second of the season to give the Crushers a 6-2 lead.

Lake Erie scored five more times on six hits in the fifth.  Jason Taylor began the inning with his 12^th homer of the season.  Kuzdale doubled in the next two runs, and scored on Wally Correa’s groundout before Daniel Bowman capped the inning with a run scoring single. 

Davis started the sixth inning with his second bomb of the night, giving him 13 on the year and Kyle Shaffer brought in Lake Erie’s final run of the frame on a two out RBI single. 

A groundout from Weldon plated the first of four runs in the seventh.  Correa’s two-bagger plated the next two runs, and shortstop Ryan Kaup’s errant throw allowed Correa to score the final run of the inning. 

The Road Warriors plated the final two runs of the game on back-to-back RBI doubles from Leighton and Kaup in the top of the ninth inning. 

Trevor Longfellow (10-2) tossed a pair of scoreless innings in relief, allowing just one hit along the way and scored the victory.  Jeff Neptune (1) scored the save, tossing the final three innings of the contest.  Tyler Vaske (1-1) allowed six runs on seven hits over four innings and was tagged with the loss. 

Seven Crushers hit safely multiple times on the night.  While Davis’s five hit performance paced the Red and Black attack, Bowman and Moldenhauer both turned in three hit performances, while Taylor, Kuzdale, Erie and Shaffer all had two hits apiece.  11 batters total registered at least one hit for the Crushers.  Two pitchers, Ben Klafczynski and Mickey Jannis batted in the eighth inning.  Klafczynski singled, and Jannis struck out.

by Andy Barch