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Crushers lose three-run lead late, swept by Schaumburg

After a comeback bid that fell just short two nights ago and a 13-2 drubbing the next evening, the Lake Erie Crushers looked to salvage the last game in a three-game set against the Schaumburg Boomers on June 30.

The Crushers (17-25) yielded an early three-run lead to the Boomers (19-21) by a final score of 4-3.

Starter Gunner Kines got a strikeout and two quick groundouts to start off the game before flipping the field over to the Lake Erie bats. Austin White got the Crushers started with a leadoff single, later advancing to third on a Kokko Figueiredo single on a hit-and-run play up the middle that he had to bob and weave to avoid being hit for a live-ball out.

“Gunner gave us everything he had,” said interim manager James Keller, filling in for Cam Roth who is out the through at least Saturday as the best man at his best friend’s wedding.

“His last two innings he threw, I thought the ball was coming out of his hand better than the previous couple of innings, getting up there in the pitch count.”

Shortly after that, Kenen Irizarry hit into a fielder’s choice that was bobbled but recollected for the out at first. But that stumble by Schaumburg’s Chase Dawson enabled White to scamper home for the game’s first run.

Two innings later with Irizarry on first, Connor Owings crushed the first pitch he saw to the hill in left field for a home run, giving the Crushers a 3-0 lead.

Kines was mostly staying out of trouble through three frames, but a Clint Hardy single and Jordan Wiley ground-rule double put runners on second and third with no outs. That enabled the Boomers’ Brett Milazzo to plate a run with a sacrifice fly to deep center field near the warning track.

The next at-bat saw a first-pitch homer to the right field scoreboard by designated hitter Thomas Debonville that tied the game at 3.

Kines recovered and threw two more scoreless innings but exited the seventh with two outs and runners on the corners in favor of Sam Curtis. With Curtis allowing one of the inherited runners to score, Kines’ final line for Lake Erie was 6 ⅔ innings. He allowed four runs on eight hits with one walk on 116 pitches, 74 thrown for strikes. Kines also whiffed six batters, with four going down looking.

“We brought Sam (Curtis) in with first and third and two outs,” Keller said. “That’s a position I told him he’s going to be in a lot and he loves that. He’s going to be the guy when we get guys on first and second, bases loaded, two outs, come in and get the job done. It was just unfortunate they were able to get the ball through the infield there, and it was a phenomenal pitch by Sam. It was just a great job by Schaumburg executing right there.”

The Crushers tried to rally in the ninth with Jackson Valera punching a broken bat single with two outs but Danny Perez went too far on a check swing to end the game.