Crushers' woes continue with loss to Gateway

AVON — The late season swoon for the Lake Erie Crushers continued Tuesday night. After leading for most of the game, Lake Erie saw its game lead and playoff position lead disappear when Sammy Tavarez gave up three runs in the eighth as the Gateway Grizzlies pulled out a 6-4 win at Crushers Stadium. The loss was the Crushers' fifth in a row and their lead for the final wild card spot in the Frontier League playoffs is now gone as they sit a half game behind Schaumburg after the Boomers' win over Evansville. "We are playing tight baseball games every night and it's really tough right now," Lake Erie manager Jared Lemieux said. "I believe in these guys, and we still have five games left in the season to get back in playoff position. We are going to give it all we got." Lake Erie fell behind in the third when Abdiel Diaz singled and eventually scored on a wild pitch, but that 1-0 Gateway lead did not last long. Jake Guenther started the bottom of the third getting hit by a pitch and Johnny Tuccillo crushed his fifth home run of the year over the fence in left to put Lake Erie up 2-1. The Grizzlies tied the game in the fifth when Dale Thomas hit his second career home run deep to left, but again Lake Erie answered in the bottom of the inning when Logan Thomason hit a ball to the gap in left-center that got by both outfielders, and he raced around the bases for an inside-the-park home run and a 3-2 Crushers lead. Gateway added a run in the sixth on a Kevin Krause sacrifice fly — scoring Victor Castillo, who had singled — before the Crushers went up again when Tuccillo reached on an error and scored on a Jarrod Watkins sacrifice fly to go up 4-3. After a scoreless inning from Christian Scafidi, Tavarez had trouble with the Grizzlies. Jose Alavarez and Gabe Holt singled to start the eighth inning. Castillo walked to load the bases and a run came home when Tavarez hit Peter Zimmerman with the first pitch. With the infield drawn in, Krause hit a hard shot through shortstop driving in a pair to give Gateway its 6-4 lead. The Crushers didn't go down without a fight, putting base runners on in each of the last two innings. Ronald Washington singled in the eighth after a Vincent Byrd walk — although Byrd was picked off at second — and the skies opened up for a 44-minute rain delay. When play resumed, Lake Erie stranded a pair of runners. The Crushers had a walk-off chance in the ninth after Alberti Chavez singled and Scout Knotts walked with two outs, but Grizzlies closer Leoni De La Cruz got Byrd swinging to end the game. Contact James Brady at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Gateway 6, Lake Erie 4 Gateway&emsp;ab&emsp;h&emsp;r&emsp;bi&emsp;Lake Erie&emsp;ab&emsp;h&emsp;r&emsp;bi Holt 5 1 1 0 Watkins 4 0 0 1 Castillo 3 2 1 0 Chavez 4 0 1 0 Zimmerman 3 0 1 1 Knotts 3 0 0 0 Krause 3 0 1 3 Byrd, Jr. 4 0 2 0 Diaz 3 0 0 0 Washington 4 0 1 0 Thomas 3 1 1 1 Harris 3 0 0 0 Thomason 3 1 1 1 Totals 32 6 8 5 Totals 32 4 6 4 Gateway&emsp;001&emsp;011&emsp;030&emsp;—&emsp;6&emsp;8&emsp;2 Lake Erie&emsp;002&emsp;010&emsp;100&emsp;—&emsp;4&emsp;6&emsp;0 HR — Thomas, Tuccillo, Thomason. CS — Byrd. SAC — Krause, Watkins. LOB — Gateway 4, Lake Erie 9. &emsp;&emsp;IP R ER H BB SO Gateway Veinbergs 6 3 3 4 1 6 Goossen-Brown (W) 1 1 0 0 0 0 Vailes 1/3 0 0 1 1 0 Whaley 2/3 0 0 0 1 1 De La Cruz (S) 1 0 0 1 1 2 Lake Erie Eisenberger 6 3 3 4 1 6 Scafidi 1 0 0 0 1 0 Tavaraez (L) 0 3 3 3 1 0 Curtis 1 0 0 0 0 0 Carver 1 0 0 1 0 1 HBP — Zimmerman (by Taverez), Guenther (by Veinbergs), Thomason (by Goosen-Brown), Chavez (by Goossen-Brown). A — 1,222; T — 3:21.