Saturday, August 21, 2010

August 21, 2010: Southern Illinois at Lake Erie

Can't post the starting lineups because Southern Illinois manager Mike Pinto is refusing to make a lineup card until he is assured there is going to be a game. It is raining at All Pro Freight and several rain systems are in the area.

UPDATE: The Crushers expect to start playing around 7:30 p.m. so Mike Pinto has graciously posted a roster for the press box.

Southern Illinois Miners (58-24) at Lake Erie (38-44)
Randy Johnson (0-0, 4.05) vs Josh Roberts (7-3, 3.07)

Southern Illinois
Will Block 2b
Michael Stalter ss
Nate Hall 3b
Stephen Head 1b
Jereme Milons CF
Todd Martin DH
Brendan Akashian C
Lenell McGee RF
Kent Gerst LF

Lake Erie
Dom Duggan CF
Raphael Turner LF
Andrew Davis 3b
Lee Huggins 1b
Matt Sutton DH
Arden McWilliams RF
Joel Collins C
Jodam Rivera SS
Jake Krause 2b

Pregame Notes:
- It is very wet at All Pro Freight Stadium. It has been raining for hours.
- Lee Huggins and Joel Collins each had three hits last night.
- Travis Risser had his eighth quality start of the season last night tying him with Matt Smith for the second place on the tam. Tonight's Josh Roberts has a team high 10.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Aug 20, 2010: Southern Illinois at Lake Erie

Southern Illinois Miners (57-24) at Lake Erie Crushers (38-43)
Ryan Bird (4-1, 2.00) vs Travis Risser (6-4, 3.30)

Southern Illinois
Will Block 2b
Stephen Head 1b
Nate Hall 3b
Joey Metropoulos RF
Jereme Milons CF
Tyler Bullock DH
Brendan Akashian C
Michael Stalter SS
Kent Gerst LF

Lake Erie
Dom Duggan CF
Raphael Turner LF
Andrew Davis SS
Matt Sutton DH
Lee Huggins 3b
Casey McGrew 1b
Joel Collins C
Jodam Rivera 2b
Trae Gore RF

Pregame Notes:
- The Crushers were shut out for the seventh time this season last night against Normal. Lake Erie had three hits which was one more than Normal's two but lost 2-0. Twice this season Lake Erie has limited an opponent to two hits and LOST both games.

- Southern Illinois first baseman Stephen Head was drafted by the Indians in 2005 as the 62nd pick in the draft. He played for Triple A Columbus last season before being released.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

August 17, 2010: Normal at Lake Erie

Normal CornBelters (45-43) at Lake Erie (37-41)
Brett Lester (6-7, 5.52) vs Josh Roberts (7-4, 2.96)

Normal
Jeff Cowan SS
Ben Petralli C
Daniel Cox 3b
Ross McCoy CF
Jonathan Ross LF
Asif Shah RF
Steve Alexander 1b
Mike Dufek DH
Brad Augustin 2b

Lake Erie
Raphael Turner LF
Jodam Rivera SS
Andrew Davis 3b
Matt Sutton DH
Lee Huggins 1b
Joel Collins C
Arden McWilliams RF
Jake Krause 2b
Dom Duggan CF

Pregame Notes:
Lake Erie began its second to last home stand of the season tonight against the Normal CornBelters. The Crushers (37-41) entered the game nine games behind first place Windy City ThunderBolts. Windy City (45-31) has won seven of their last 10 to take first place from Oakland County (45-33), who has lost eight of 10. The Cruisers are holding onto the second to last Eastern Division playoff spot. The Crushers are eight games back of Oakland County with 18 to play. Traverse City is in third place four games ahead of Lake Erie and four back of Oakland County. The Crushers play six at home go on the road for six then finish the season with six more at All Pro Freight Stadium. Manager John Massarelli was blunt in his approach to these last 18 games.
“We are going to try to win,” he said. “The goal is to win tonight. They know what we have to do which is put together a big streak.”

New face
The Frontier League roster deadline has passed. So the current roster will have to do for the rest of the season. The Crushers made one last move adding Jake Krause, who started at second base last night. Krause played for Fargo-Moorhead in the Northern League. He hit .290 in 93 at bats. Krause played collegiately at Concordia -Moorhead, he led the team in hits (51), runs (38), home runs (6), total bases (80), slugging percentage (.625) and stolen bases (24). Krause also tied for the team lead in RBI (30) and finished second in batting average (.398).

Criss remembered
Before the first pitch of tonight’s game there will be a moment of silence for Avon firefighter Kevin Criss, who passed away late Monday night after a motorcycle accident. On Saturday, Criss played at All Pro Freight when the Avon firefighters and police played softball to raise money for Breast cancer research.

Guest voice
Jack Desmond, a 20-year old from Shaker Heights, is the guest announcer tonight. Desmond, who has been blind since birth, was also a guest announcer last season. Tomorrow he is scheduled to accept the Raymond A. Horn Award for outstanding achievement by the Coalition for the Education of Children with Disabilities in Columbus. Desmond has been the voice of the Shaker Heights Raiders for the last three seasons. Crusher outfielder Arden McWilliams is a former Raider and helped arrange for Jack’s return this summer.

Promotions
As always the Crushers have a plethora of promotions on the home stand. Tomorrow Lorain boxer Wilkins Santiago will throw out the first pitch before the game. It is also Fitness Night as Coleen Skebeck of NBC’s Biggest Loser 6 will be on hand. Thursday is Thirsty Thursday with dollar drafts. Friday has fireworks and is 80s night. Saturday is Back to School Night. There is a jersey bag giveaway and youth group Olympics. Sunday features a Baseball 101 Clinic for women over 21 at 2:30 p.m. Registration is $35 and includes a pre-game picnic and one home box ticket for Sunday’s game against the Southern Illinois Miners at 5:05pm. Proceeds from the clinic will be donated to the Fight against Breast Cancer. The clinic will focus on teaching the participants the fundamentals of baseball and provide a chance to meet some of the Crushers players and coaches. Clinic participants should bring a baseball glove and dress in sports attire such as shorts and a t-shirt and tennis shoes are recommended (metal cleats are prohibited). Call 440-934-3636 for more information.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

August 7, 2010: Oakland County at Lake Erie

Oakland County Cruisers (43-27) at Lake Erie Crushers (34-36)
James Albury (6-3, 4.15) at Josh Roberts (6-3, 2.56)

Cruisers
Zachary Pace CF
Bobby Andrews LF
Jeremy Jones DH
Joash Brodin 1b
Kyle Maunus 3b
Dan Killian C
Luis Fernandez SS
Robbie Tolan RF
Bobby Burk 2b

Crushers
Jodam Rivera SS
Drew Saylor 2b
Andrew Davis 3b
Matt Sutton DH
Adam Amar 1b
Joel Collins C
Wayne Bond LF
Arden McWilliams RF
Dom Duggan CF

Pregame Notes:
- Crushers took two from first place Oakland County last night. The first game, a 5-1 win in 15 innings, was the completetion of the July 24 game that was suspended tied at 4 in the 13th inning. Trae Gore scored on Dom Duggan's base hit in the 15th. After scoring Gore was put on the disabled list to make room for new DH Matt Sutton.
-Sutton homered in his first game for the Crushers which was 9-1 7-inning win in the night cap. Sutton is expected to hit fourth and protect Andrew Davis in the lineup. Adam Amar also joined the team last night. He will play first base while Eddie Tisdale is on the disabled list.
- The Crushers are now nine games behind the Cruisers and in fourth place in the Eastern Division. They are six games behind the second place Windy City for the second and final Eastern Division playoff spot.

New Crusher faces

The Crushers added two new faces to the roster last night, designated hitter Matt Sutton and first baseman Adam Amer.

Sutton made his presence instantly felt with a two run home run in the fifth inning.

Sutton was with the team in the preseason but suffered an injury. He was just recently cleared to play. Sutton played for current Crusher manager John Massarelli in Washington in 2007 when he hit .295 with 12 home run with 58 RBI. Sutton had 100 hits that season. Sutton played for the Wild Things from 2007-2009. Overall he hit .277 with 30 HR and 136 RBI.

Sutton started his college career at UNC-Wilmington before transferring to Coastal Carolina.

Amar started the season with the Washington Wild Things. In 42 games he hit .255 with 2 HR and 26 RBI. He was traded to Normal where he hit .216 in 14 games before being released.

Amar played for the Vermont Lake Monsters of the New York Penn League in 2009, collecting 17 hits, four doubles, two home runs and nine RBI in 35 games. In 2008, he batted.302 with nine home runs in 67 games for Auburn of the New York Penn League, leading the team in hits (76), doubles (17) and RBI (42). Amar had a 12-game hitting streak from July 4-18, including seven straight multi-hit games from July 9-16.


The Lake Mary, Fla., native made his professional debut in 2007, playing 24 games with Reno of the independent Golden Baseball League and batting.354 with 22 runs, 34 hits, 11 doubles, five home runs and 19 RBI. Amar graduated from Memphis in 2007 as the school's all-time leader in games played (217), hits (276) and RBI (192). A four-year letterman, he batted.358 as a senior and.398 as a junior. His honors accumulated during his collegiate career include C-USA First Team, C-USA All-Tournament Team and NCAA Nashville Regional Tournament Team selections.

Monday, August 2, 2010

Man in Black assists Crushers

Lake Erie manager John Massarelli is a big fan of Johnny Cash. He often has the Man in Black's songs play during batting practice. Many of his players aren't quite enamored by the music.

They better get used it.

The Crushers have not hit all season and it has been profoundly bad since the All-Star break. Massarelli told his team if they didn't start hitting they would lose their walk up music.

In the 7th inning, Arden McWilliams picked up the Crushers third hit of the game. He hit a solo shot to break what was a scoreless tie.

In the 8th inning, Jodam Rivera walked to the plate and stopped. Instead of his music, the PA was blasting Walk the Line.

It worked as Rivera doubled. Up next was Andrew Davis and instead of country music it was Ring of Fire. Davis who broke an 0 for 24 the day before, singled and drove home Rivera. The Kings went to their pen and the All Pro Freight crowd may have become the first baseball crowd to hear Folsom Prison Blues in its entirety. Saylor walked and then music guy Bill Dziatlcowicz had a problem. He was out of Cash songs. He played Big John by Billy Dean for Joel Collins. Collins flew out but Davis went to third. Billy D started the Cash list over. Lee Huggins hit into a fielders choice which scored Davis. Wayne Bond singled and an error allowed Huggins and Bond into scoring position which paid off when a passed ball scored Huggins. The Crushers went on to win 4-0.

After the game Massarelli explained the reason for the music.
"I told them if I had to continue watch them not hit at least I would enjoy the music," Massarelli said. "We are going to play Johnny Cash until we score 10."
Massarelli liked the music but wasn't ready to credit it with the hits.

"I don't know if that had anything to do with it but we strung some at bats in the eighth."

Travis Risser made his first start since coming off the DL. He pitched well but was limited to five innings. He was one of three Crusher pitchers to hold the Kings scoreless. Ronnie Morales pitched the sixth and Cinadr the last three.
Cinadr is now 4-1 and his ERA is 1.68. He has become the team's go to reliever.
Cinadr said the Johnny Cash music moved from pregame to the game.

"They play it a lot during batting practice," he said. "Not a whole lot of people like it but is is Mas's favorite artist or one of them. Mas said it is Johnny Cash walk ups now for everyone."

When asked if he liked Johnny Cash, Cinadr said, "I like some of his stuff but I can't listen to it all day every day like Mas could."

McWilliams had a confession after the game.

"Until the movie came out I had no idea who Johnny Cash was."
McWilliams is a fan now.

"Now I like it is our rally song. In baseball it’s weird there are superstitious guys and there are guys who aren’t but whenever we have a rally and believe it could be due to anything,” McWilliams said. “If a Johnny Cash song is key to our rally then so be it. I would be happy to have Johnny Cash be my walkout song for the rest of the season.”

Notes:
- On July 24 game the Crushers had scheduled two seven-inning games against first place Oakland County. The Crushers won the first game 2-1 despite getting only one hit. The second game was still tied 4-4 after 13 innings. That game will be completed on Friday, Aug. 6 with first pitch set for 6:05 p.m. The originally scheduled 7:05 game, by minor league rules, will be seven innings.
- First baseman Eddie Tisdale was put on the 14-day disabled list for a wrist injury.

August 2, 2010: Kings at Crushers

Kalamazoo Kings (17-48) at Lake Erie Crushers (31-33)
Alex Symanski (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs Travis Risser (5-2, 3.59)


Starting Lineups

Kalamazoo
JJ Sferra LF
Eric Suttle CF
Matt Maloney 1b
Matt Greener 3b
Brendan Murphy DH
Bryan Marquez SS
Kris Miller RF
Jeff Helps 2b
Jett Ruiz C

Lake Erie
Dom Duggan CF
Jodam Rivera SS
Andrew Davis 3b
Drew Saylor 2b
Joel Collins C
Lee Huggins 1b
Wayne Bond LF
Arden McWilliams RF
Raphael Turner DH



Game Notes:
- Last night's 2-1 loss was the Crushers' 12th loss in the last 14 games. In six of those losses the Crushers allowed 1,4,4,2,3 and 2 runs.
- Lake Erie is hitting .235 as a team. Kalamazoo is the only team worse hitting .229. Windy City leads the Frontier League with a .279 average.
- Kalamazoo starter Alex Szymanski is making his second professional start. The true rookie out of Franklin Pierce University threw seven shutout innings in his first start on July 28 at home against Windy City. The lefty allowed three hits, three walks and struck out two. He left with a 4-0 lead but his bullpen allowed four runs in the 8th. The Kings would win 6-5 in 10 innings.
- The Crusher bullpen allowed an unearned run in the sixth to halt their scoreless streak at 15.1. The unearned streak remains at 19 innings.

Crushers lose 12th of last 14

The Crushers lost to last place Kalamazoo 2-1 last night. Video and story here.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

August 1, 2010: Kalamazoo at Lake Erie

Kalamazoo Kings (16-48) at Lake Erie Crushers (31-32)
Guido Fonseca Jr. (1-5, 6.09) vs Alberto Rolon (2-2, 3.02)

Kalamazoo
JJ Sferra LF
Eric Suttle CF
Matt Maloney 1b
Matt Greener 3b
Lee Rubin C
Brendan Murphy DH
Kris Miller RF
Bryan Marquez SS
Jeff Helps 2b

Lake Erie
Jodam Rivera SS
Raphael Turner DH
Andrew Davis 3b
Drew Saylor 2b
Lee Huggins 1b
Wayne Bond LF
Arden McWilliams RF
Julio RIvera C
Dom Duggan CF


Pregame Notes:
- The Crushers snapped a franchise record six game losing streak last night. Arden McWilliams was the hero with a two-out, two-run home run in the seventh inning. It was McWilliams sixth of the season and first since June 16.
-Since the All Star break, McWilliams leads the team with .265 average.
- The Crushers bullpen threw four scoreless innings last night to extend their scoreless streak to 15 innings dating to July 26.

Crushers end losing streak

The Crushers followed their worst week at home where they lost four in a row before winning a game 2-1 with just one hit with the worst road trip in the two year history of the franchise. The Crushers lost all six games to Windy City and Washington. By losing 10 of 11, Lake Erie fell below .500 and dropped from second place and in the playoffs to fourth place, 9 and half out of first.

The Crusher opened a quick three game home stand with a 3-1 win over last place Kalamazoo. As bad as the last two weeks have been, the Crushers are only three and half games out of the second place and the final Eastern Division playoff spot.

The key will be if the Crushers can hit. Third baseman Andrew Davis is hitting .309 with a team high seven home runs. Jodam Rivera has seen his average plumment to .282. Eddie Tisdale is third on the team with .260 average. Raphael Turner who joined the team just before the all-star break is hitting .245. No one else is above .230. The team batting average is .235, which is only better than Kalamazoo's .230.