All seemed well for the Lake Erie Crushers on Sunday in game four of their divisional series with Kalamazoo. They started the day needing a win to advance to the Frontier League Championship series and had a 5-0 lead after one inning. But the Kings refused to say die and rallied with seven unanswered runs to beat the Crushers by the final of 7-5 to force a deciding game five on Monday night at Homer Stryker Field in Kalamazoo.

After Kalamazoo starter John Brownell allowed five runs (three earned) on four hits in the first, he clamped down the Crushers offense for the remainder of the afternoon. Brownell went the distance for a complete game victory, allowing six hits while striking out six and walking three. “An amazing performance by Brownell,” said Crusher skipper John Massarelli afterwards. “As impressive as I’ve ever seen.”

The Crushers went after Brownell quickly in the first as Andrew Davis doubled home Jodam Rivera for a 1-0 lead. Tyler Johnson added a two-run single and the Crushers picked up two more thanks to an error on Kings second baseman Joe Ramos. Down 5-0, the Kings started their comeback in the third inning on an RBI single by Brandon Anderson off of Cardoza Tucker. Anderson struck again in the fifth inning as he lined a Tucker pitch over the wall in right-center field for his first home run of the postseason. Tucker worked five plus innings for the Crushers, allowing four runs (three earned) on four hits with five strikeouts and four walks to earn a no-decision.

The Kings would tie the game in the sixth inning as Amos Ramon hit an RBI single followed by a Brendan Murphy run-scoring grounder. With two outs in the inning, Kyle Higgins hit a fly ball to center that was dropped by Tyler Johnson, allowing Ramon to score the game-tying run. Kalamazoo would take their first lead of the game in the eighth inning as Matt Maloney led off the inning with a single, was sacrificed to second by Ramon, and then scored on Jett Ruiz’s RBI double. In the ninth, the Kings would pick up an insurance run on a sacrifice fly by Maloney that scored Ramos.

The Crushers and Kings will play one game to decide the Divisional Series on Monday evening at 7:05 in Kalamazoo. “They (Kalamazoo) know how to win, and so do my guys,” said Massarelli. “That’s why it’s a heckuva series and should be a tremendous game five.”