Crushers keep rolling, down Florence for fifth straight win

AVON — Lake Erie picked a good time to get hot. The Crushers won their fifth straight game Saturday, defeating Florence 5-1 at Mercy Health Stadium to continue their push for the final Frontier League playoff spot. "I really enjoyed coming in here and I'm just trying to win ballgames," said Crushers right fielder London Green, who joined the team Tuesday and has yet to experience a loss. He drove in two runs and scored twice Saturday. "I can tell you it's really loose in the dugout, we're enjoying every bit of this," Green said. Lake Erie (38-39) entered Saturday 41/2 games behind Joliet for third in the West Division and five games behind Schaumberg for second. The top three teams in each division qualify for the postseason. The Crushers conclude their series with Florence (31-45) tonight at 5:35. Lake Erie then will face Schaumberg and Joliet in back-to-back three-game series this week. Jay Alvarez gave Lake Erie another strong outing. The righty improved to 5-4 after going six innings and allowing four hits, two walks and no runs with six strikeouts. "Starting pitching and defense," Lake Erie manager Cam Roth said when asked what the keys to the streak have been. "I think we made some good plays, and all that obviously also has to be attributed to (catcher) Casey Combs. He's a front-line catcher for every team in the league. We're just fortunate to have him. The fingers he put down, he knows these guys really well and sticks to the game plan of pitching to our strengths and not our weaknesses." Lake Erie used a three-run fourth inning to break Saturday's game open when its first four batters — Kemuel Thomas-Rivero, Austin White, Green and Kenen Irizarry — reached safely. Green's grounder into left scored Thomas-Rivero, and White then scored on an overthrow by Ethan Stern while trying to put out Irizarry at first base. Irizarry would have scored on an overthrow by Bryant Flete during Kokko Figueiredo's bunt attempt, but the umpire ruled that Figueiredo interfered with first baseman Brennan Price and was ruled out. Irizarry was forced to go back to second and was stranded there. "I was just trying to get a ball in the air to get the run in," Green said. "I got it down to two strikes so I just wanted to put a ball in play and make some magic happen." The Lake Erie bullpen got into trouble in the seventh when Mark Moclair loaded the bases with two outs, walking in the first Florence run. Trevor Kuncl took over and induced a groundout. Sam Curtis pitched a flawless eighth, striking out three on 10 pitches, and Gleyvin Pineda closed the door. "We've been relying so much on Curtis and (Alexis) Rivero, it's like they need some days off," Roth said. "But when you're in August like this, they do a great job of keeping in shape and have worked very hard to go three days in a row." Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on Twitter.