The Lake Erie Crushers scored early and often against the Windy City Thunderbolts on Saturday evening, plating five of their six runs in the first three innings as they avoided a three game sweep with a 6-4 victory at Standard Bank Stadium.

Lake Erie (1-2) never trailed in the contest, and turned in their finest offensive performance of the season, scoring six runs on 11 hits, while Windy City (2-1) was held to just four runs, after scoring 22 runs in their first two games combined.

Patrick Norris began the game with a base hit, and scored on Chase Fontaine's double down the left field line to plate the game's first run. Fontaine would come home later in the first, on Nick Mahin's sacrifice fly to give the Crushers a 2-0 edge. Windy City cut into that lead in the bottom of the first on Chase Porch's two-out RBI single.

An inning later, the Thunderbolts tied the game at 2-2 when Mike Torres scored on J.J. Sferra's groundout. The Crushers responded quickly by scoring a trio of runs on four big hits in the top of the third. Norris and Fontaine started the inning with back-to-back singles, and Norris scored on Andrew Davis's sacrifice fly. Mahin came through again for the Crushers two batters later by smashing a two-run double.

Windy City inched closer in the third inning, getting another big two-out hit on Chase Porch's RBI double, and they scored their final run in the seventh inning on Zack Aakhus's base hit to bring them within a run.

The Crushers were able to score a big insurance run in the top of the eighth inning. Mahin started the inning with a base hit, and moved to second base on a throwing error by Windy City's left fielder, Josh Womack. Joel Collins bunted Mahin over to third, and he scored on Scott Houin's base hit.

The Thunderbolts never threatened to score after Aakhus's single in the seventh, as Ruben Flores (1) retired all four batters he faced, and struck out the side in the ninth inning to score his first save of the season.

Andrew Weeks (1-0) was strong through five innings of work for the Crushers, allowing three runs on five hits, while walking two and fanning two. He finished on a strong note, by sitting down the final six batters he faced. Over the game's final four innings, Greg Hendrix, Kelyn Schellenberg, Jeff Cinadr, and Flores combined to allow just a run on five hits while striking out six in relief.

Matt Costello (0-1) of Windy City suffered the loss. He surrendered five runs on five hits and made it through three innings before being pulled.

Mahin, Houin and Fontaine each hit safely twice for the Crushers. Mahin drove in three runs and scored twice, while Norris and Fontaine at the top of the order combined to go 3-for-9 with four runs and an RBI, and eight out of the starting nine hit safely.