Lake Erie Crushers drop season opener to Miners, spoiling Midview grad Ryan Feierabend's homecoming

AVON — It had been a long wait for the Lake Erie Crushers to retake the field. It will have to wait one more day to get back into the win column. Southern Illinois put together a big fourth inning to post an 8-5 win and spoil Lake Erie's home opener at Mercy Health Stadium on Thursday night. The teams conclude their two-game series tonight at 7:05 with 6-foot-5 righty Robby Rowland scheduled to take the mound for the Crushers. "It feels amazing," said Lake Erie first baseman Bryan De La Rosa, who scored three runs, of playing again after having last season canceled by the pandemic. "Even though we lost today it was a hell of a game. We battled throughout the whole game and I feel like we stayed active and fought throughout the whole game. The guys are looking really good. I feel like we're a few clicks away just to get everything together and get our team going." The Crushers were unable to get Ryan Feierabend a win in his homecoming. The former Midview standout who played for Seattle, Texas and Toronto in the major leagues went 3 2/3 innings, surrendering five earned runs on eight hits and two walks with three strikeouts. Southern Illinois chased Feierabend from the game in the fourth, sending nine to the plate and scoring four runs. The Miners sandwiched a walk around two hits to load the bases with no outs. Jarrod Watkins drove one in on a fielder's choice, leaving two in scoring position for Marshall Rich, who drove in another with a blooper into right field. Brandon Pugh grounded into another fielder's choice, extending Southern Illinois' lead to 4-1. Spencer Henn delivered the knockout blow, capping the inning with a double to the left field wall. "We had two broken-bat hits and a high chopper we couldn't make the play on and everything just kind of went (downhill) from there," said Lake Erie manager Dan Rohn, who was hired to replace Cam Roth after the 2019 season, but because of the pandemic made his Crushers managerial debut Thursday. "I thought Ryan threw the ball pretty well. He got into his head a little bit later in the fourth inning, but again that's a year and a half off. You're put in a pressure situation when the game is on the line, you tend to overthink. Even the veterans do it. But I thought he threw the ball well for the first three innings." Lake Erie struck back in the second when Bryan De La Rosa crushed a ball to the center field warning track for a leadoff double. Connor Oliver moved De La Rosa to third with a liner into left and De La Rosa scored on an unorthodox fielder's choice when Southern Illinois shortstop Jarrod Watkins dropped a routine fly ball. De La Rosa scored but Oliver was thrown out at second. "Sometimes you have those days and sometimes you don't, that's just the way baseball goes," De La Rosa said. "I'm just glad I was able to get stuff going for the team. Whatever I can do for the team to get that rally going and get that 'W' at the end of the day I'm all for it." Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com and follow him @CSweeneyCT on Twitter.