Frontier League playoffs: Crushers lose 1-0 to Freedom, get swept out of playoffs

AVON — Lake Erie's return to the Frontier League playoffs ended quickly, but not without a fight. Crushers pitching gutted out seven strong innings, stranding a Florence runner on third base in five of them, but the Freedom broke through in the eighth with the game's only run Friday night at Sprenger Stadium. The 1-0 win completed a three-game sweep for the Freedom. The East Division champion Crushers, making their trip to the postseason since 2014, have lost their last seven playoff games. It was the first appearance under manager Cam Roth, who took over midway through the 2016 season and was recently named the Frontier League's manager of the year. "Any time you don't win a championship, you're not achieving your goal," Roth said. "You can't necessarily be 100 percent satisfied with that, but I'm not going to say that we're disappointed. From April until now we've kept a lot of the same guys and that's a big thing. We stuck with our guns, stuck with our intuition and our gut, and it paid off. I'm very satisfied, glad and grateful that we were able to bring playoff baseball back to Avon." While Crushers pitchers allowed 10 hits, they also struck out 12 and routinely pitched their way out of tight situations. Florence had runners on the corners with two outs in the second, but starter Dylan Mouzakes got the strikeout to end the inning. Mouzakes had an uneventful third, but allowed a Caleb Lopes single to lead off the fourth. He was pulled for reliever Kent Hasler after Andre Mercurio bunted Lopes to second. Hasler proceeded to walk Isaac Benard and Ryan Rinsky put both Freedom base runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. But Hasler dug in to strike out Brandon Pugh, freezing him with a curveball. The Crushers faced some adversity in the fifth. Connor Crane sent a liner into left field that was fielded perfectly by Zach Racusin. The throw looked to have beat Crane into second, but Crane was called safe. Then, during the next at-bat, Crane stole third on another close throw from catcher Bryan De La Rosa that looked to have gotten there on time. Hasler again came through, striking out two — sandwiched around an intentional walk. But the biggest Houdini act came in the sixth, when Mercurio led off with a double and went to third on a Benard bunt single. The Crushers didn't give in. Hasler struck out Rinsky and then De La Rosa gunned out Benard trying to steal second. On the next pitch, Hasler got Brandon Pugh swinging. "We were hitting our spots a lot," De La Rosa said. "They were doing their job, throwing the pitches they were supposed to throw. They had good movement and got guys out. I expect nothing less from them because they've been doing a heck of a job the whole season and they showed that today." Augie Gallardo relieved Hasler in the seventh after leadoff single. He struck out the next four batters and handed things off to Dalton Geekie in the eighth. Geekie walked the first batter he faced and the Freedom took advantage. Benard sent a shot into center for a ground-rule double. While it worked in the Crushers' favor because Mercurio looked like a lock to score had the ball stayed in the field, it was false hope as Trevor Craport delivered a pinch-hit fielder's choice to score Mercurio. "It was a heck of a season for the whole team," De La Rosa said. "We had a great time with a great group of guys and did everything we could. We fell a little bit short, but it was still a great run." Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com and follow him @CSweeneyCT on Twitter.