Darren Ragins, Lake Erie shuts down Joliet in front of sellout crowd at Crushers Stadium

AVON — The Crushers drew their first sellout crowd of the season for Red, White and Boom Night. They celebrated with a victory Thursday in front of a crowd of 4,614 fans thanks to a dominant pitching performance by Darrien Ragins, who allowed one run over six innings, in a 3-1 win over the Joliet Slammers at Crushers Stadium. Lake Erie improved to 24-21 with its first home sweep and first series sweep since May. The win leaves the Crushers a game behind the Washington Wild Things in the Central Division of the Midwest Conference. "This feels good and that's what we've been working on," Ragins said of his team's first home sweep. "We feel like we have one of the most talented rosters in the league and we should be doing this. It's our expectation." Ragins, who walked one and struck out four, scattered all eight Joliet hits over his six innings. When the Slammers (24-24) got runners in scoring position, he clamped down and allowed only one run in the fifth on a bloop double down the left-field line from Chris Davis, who scored on a Liam McArthur opposite-field single to right. "I appreciate Alfredo 'Pasta' keeping us locked in, being the leader that he is. That's veteran experience, right there," Ragins said of catcher Alfredo Gonzalez. "The most important parts of the game are when runners are in scoring position, that's when you have to lock in." Lake Erie got all the runs it needed by scoring three times in the first two innings off Slammers starter Zac Westcott. Alfredo Gonzalez and Jarrod Watkins each had one-out singles, and after a Scout Knotts' deep fly ball to left, Davie Morgan sent Gonzalez home with a double to left. In the second, Vincent Byrd doubled to left-center and scored on a Dario Gomez (3-for-5) base hit. Gonzalez made it 3-0 with a single up the middle. Lake Erie also had plenty of baserunners with 13 base hits. Gomez, Gonzalez and Watkins had multihit games. Eight of the nine hitters in the lineup had hits. Joliet had a chance to score in the sixth, but a pair of defensive gems kept the Slammers off the board. After a pair of one-out singles, Antonio Valdez hit a ball that only Ragins could reach and he made a glove flip to third for the out. Blake Berry singled to center, but Gomez threw a dart to Gonzalez for the out at home. A grounder to short ended the inning. Brandyn Sittinger came out of the bullpen and showed off his 95 mph fastball, striking out four in two innings. It was his 16th straight scoreless appearance. "The whole starter thing was always nice since I did it in college, but it just wasn't for me," Sittinger said. "You just gotta go out there to get one or two (outs) at a time in a close game. It makes it a lot more competitive of an edge when you are out there." Michael Brewer came on in the ninth and lowered his ERA to 0.51, setting the Slammers down in order for the save. "The guys are doing a great job for me on the mound right now," Lake Erie manager Jared Lemieux said. "It's another good outing for (Ragins). He was an All-Star for me and that was an All-Star performance tonight. "We had a great crowd all three nights and they really energized us. We want to perform for our hometown crowd. We're just happy we could do it for them." Contact James Brady at (440) 3297135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.