Jackson Valera's big day at plate gives Crushers sweep of Otters

AVON — Jackson Valera's bat spoke loudly and clearly Sunday for the Lake Erie Crushers. Valera had four hits in five at-bats and drove in the tying and winning runs as the Crushers swept past Evansville 3-2 in 10 innings at Mercy Health Stadium. Valera's line drive with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning drove in Sean Cheely with the winning run. Cheely started the inning on second base under the tiebreaker rules. Austin White beat out a bunt, moving Cheely to third, but Kenen Irizarry popped out to send Valera to the plate. With two strikes, Valera fouled off a pitch before ripping a single to right-center. "He said he was just trying to protect the zone," said teammate and interpreter Danny Perez. "He didn't want to be surprised by anything. He noticed different patterns on how they pitched to him and he just battled up there. "He said he's had a good week. He's just tried to be consistent with his approach and that's what has really helped him." "That's our guy," said Lake Erie manager Cam Roth, whose team is 17-22. "He's played every single day. There's not many guys I'd rather have up there than Jackson Valera." Evansville (22-16) scratched a run across in the fourth inning. Elijah MacNamee's doubled, a ground ball moved him to third and J.R. Davis' sacrifice fly brought him home. It appeared it might be enough. Other than Valera, who had two of Lake Erie's four hits over the first seven innings, the Crushers didn't do much damage off Evansville starter Parker Brahms. He pitched seven strong innings, striking out a dozen and giving up just one run. Kokko Figueiredo walked, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by newly acquired catcher Casey Combs and scored on a single from Cheely. Evansville quickly took back the lead in the eighth inning, but Valera's home run to deep left field tied it again in the bottom of the inning. Roth pushed all the right buttons with his pitching staff in keeping the Crushers in the game. Matt Mulhearn, Trevor Kuncl, Gleyvin Pineda, Alexis Rivero and Sam Curtis combined to keep the Otters at bay. Evansville started the 10th with Andy Armstrong on second base and Curtis kept him right there in retiring the side. He earned the win by getting Jeffery Baez to ground out to short for the first out. He intentionally walked cleanup hitter Steven Sensley (.321, eight home runs and 23 RBIs) before getting Elijah MacNamee to hit into a crisp around-the-horn double play to give Lake Erie the chance for its three-game sweep of the second-place Otters. "I'm going to always say the same thing, it starts with starting pitching and defense," said Roth. "For Matt Mulhearn to come out and set the tone like that (six innings, one run, eight strikeouts). That's a really good club over there and to hold them to one run for six innings (was key). Our bullpen was running really thin but they threw the ball really well." Roth also credited Combs, who was acquired from Florence last week, for settling down the pitching staff. "You can tell the difference on how these pitchers are attacking hitters," Roth said. "I think it's his pedigree. His dad (Pat) was a pitcher in the big leagues back in the day. I was able to watch him for a whole month in the CWL (California Winter League) and I liked what I saw. He's had a lot of experience calling his own games." Contact Tim Gebhardt at 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com. Crushers 3, Otters 2 (10 Innings)Otters&emsp;&emsp;Crushers&emsp;&emsp;ab&emsp;&emsp;r&emsp;&emsp;h&emsp;&emsp;bi&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;ab&emsp;&emsp;r&emsp;&emsp;h&emsp;&emsp;biGordon&emsp;&emsp;5&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;White&emsp;&emsp;5&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;2&emsp;&emsp;0Biermann&emsp;&emsp;3&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;Irizarry&emsp;&emsp;5&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0Baez&emsp;&emsp;4&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;Valera&emsp;&emsp;5&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;4&emsp;&emsp;2Sensley&emsp;&emsp;4&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;Gitter&emsp;&emsp;3&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0MacNamee&emsp;&emsp;4&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;Owings&emsp;&emsp;3&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0Phllips&emsp;&emsp;2&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;Figueiredo&emsp;&emsp;2&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0Davis&emsp;&emsp;3&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;Combs&emsp;&emsp;3&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0Torreulla&emsp;&emsp;4&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;Perez&emsp;&emsp;4&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0Armstrong&emsp;&emsp;4&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;Cheely&emsp;&emsp;4&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;1Totals&emsp;&emsp;33&emsp;&emsp;2&emsp;&emsp;6&emsp;&emsp;2&emsp;&emsp;Totals&emsp;&emsp;34&emsp;&emsp;3&emsp;&emsp;9&emsp;&emsp;3Otters&emsp;&emsp;000&emsp;&emsp;100&emsp;&emsp;010&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;—2&emsp;&emsp;6&emsp;&emsp;0Crushers&emsp;&emsp;000&emsp;&emsp;000&emsp;&emsp;110&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;—3&emsp;&emsp;9&emsp;&emsp;02B—Sensley,Gordon, Phillips, MacNamee, Owings. HR—Valera. SAC—Combs. SF—Davis, Phillips. SB—Armstrong, MacNamee, White 2. CS—Cheely, Gitter. DP—Crushers. LOB—Otters 10, Crushers 9.&emsp;&emsp;IP&emsp;&emsp;H&emsp;&emsp;R&emsp;&emsp;ER&emsp;&emsp;BB&emsp;&emsp;SOOtters Brahms&emsp;&emsp;7&emsp;&emsp;5&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;2&emsp;&emsp;12Bowles&emsp;&emsp;2/3&emsp;&emsp;2&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0Gallardo&emsp;&emsp;1 1/3&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;1Sawyer (L, 0-1)&emsp;&emsp;1/3&emsp;&emsp;2&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0CrushersMulhearn&emsp;&emsp;6&emsp;&emsp;5&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;3&emsp;&emsp;8Knucl&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;2Pineda&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;1Rivero&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0Curtis (W,2-1)&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;0&emsp;&emsp;1&emsp;&emsp;0HBP—Baez, MacNamee (by Pineda). WP—Bowles, Mulhearn. BK—Pineda, Rivero. T: 3:43