BOX SCORE
CRESTWOOD, IL – ThunderBolt pitchers finished with 18 strikeouts, but they weren’t enough to hold back the Lake Erie Crushers, who took the opener of a three-game series, 3-2 at Ozinga Field Tuesday night.
After an hour-long rain delay, Lake Erie (7-2) struck quickly, plating two runs in the top of the first inning. The ThunderBolts (3-8) had a chance to get out of the inning on a double play, but an errant throw kept the frame alive and Seth Strong made them pay with a two-run double off the right field wall.
The Bolts responded straight away with a score in the bottom of the first. Michael Sandle singled, moved to second on an Oscar Serratos walk and came home on a David Maberry base hit that made the score 2-1.
The Crushers doubled their lead in the fourth when Strong struck again. A solo home run, his first of the year, doubled their lead.
The Windy City bats went quiet as they were unable to come up with a hit after the first inning until the sixth. Finally they found the scoreboard again in the eighth when Dakota Kotowski homered for the second straight game, making it a 3-2 score.
Ethan Smith (1-0) pitched five strong innings for the win. Greg Duncan (0-1) struck out a career-high 11 over six innings but took the tough-luck loss. Jacob Newman fanned another seven Crushers in his three innings of relief.
There’s a quick turnaround before game two of the series on Wednesday morning. Aaron Evers (1-0, 3.27) starts for the Bolts against Lake Erie’s Jack Eisenbarger (1-0, 2.25). First pitch is scheduled for 10:35 on the fourth School Day of the year at Ozinga Field presented by Dave & Buster’s. Broadcast information can be found at wcthunderbolts.com
