wcthunderbolts.com

CRESTWOOD, IL – Omar Obregon extended his hitting streak to 26 games to become the franchise’s all-time leader, but the ThunderBolts came up short in a 3-1 loss to the Lake Erie Crushers at Standard Bank Stadium Thursday evening.

The Crushers (40-35) got the scoring started in the first inning with back-to-back one-out singles from Dane Hutcheon and Joel McKeithan. With runners on the corners, Cody Lenahan’s groundout scored Hutcheon.

Eddie Avila did not allow another run over his four innings and he struck out six, but he and Lake Erie starter Micah Beyer were both forced out of the game by a 41-minute rain delay that halted action in the middle of the fourth.

On the other end of the delay, the Crushers were the beneficiaries of some Windy City control problems. Colton Follett walked three men to load the bases in the fifth and Dan Hlad walked the first man he faced out of the bullpen to force in a run.

Obregon led off the sixth inning with a bunt single to break Gilberto Mejia’s franchise hit streak record and Axel Johnson followed with a base hit. With two outs in the inning, the Bolts (32-44) got on the board with a Blair Beck RBI single.

That would be all the offense managed by the ThunderBolts, though, and Terry McClure’s RBI single in the seventh sealed the score at 3-1 for Lake Erie.

Louis Cohen (4-0) pitched 2.1 innings out of the Crushers’ bullpen and Avila (2-6) took the tough-luck loss. Logan Lombana picked up his seventh save.

The ThunderBolts start a six-game road trip on Friday in Washington. Zac Westcott (6-7,3.67) will start game one of the three game series for the Bolts against Michael Austin (1-2, 4.05) of the Wild Things. First pitch from Wild Things Park is scheduled for 6:05 CDT and the broadcast can be heard through wcthunderbolts.com.

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