Crushers rally falls short in loss to Washington

AVON — For the second night in a row, the Lake Erie Crushers came up short against the Washington Wild Things, this time in a 6-4 loss Saturday night that saw their division lead dwindle to just one game. The Wild Things started hot, sending seven batters to the plate in the top of the first and scoring two runs on a single to left by Wagner LaGrange. One of the runners who scored on that hit was Ben Watson, who reached on an error, the first of four the Crushers committed. Washington wasn't done with the early scoring, as it sent eight more batters to the plate in the second and scored three more runs, including an RBI double from LaGrange that followed a two-run single from Tommy Caufield. For good measure, the Wild Things added one more run in the third on a single from Kyle Edwards that put the Crushers in a 6-0 hole before they had even made it through the entire batting order. Crushers starter Darrien Ragins settled down after the third inning, and in the bottom of the fourth the Crushers' bats finally woke up. The Crushers loaded the bases with no outs, and their fourth straight hit to start the inning scored their first run of the game. It looked as if the Crushers were poised for a huge inning, but after a line out to right and a ground out that scored a second run, a ground out to the shortstop ended the inning with the Crushers still facing a four-run deficit. Lake Erie wasn't going to go down without a fight, however, and it scored two more runs in the seventh to make the final two innings a bit more nerve-wracking for Washington. "The guys showed some fight tonight," Crushers manager Jared Lemieux said. "That's what I want them to do. They didn't give up, and they kept playing hard. That's a good club over there, and you've got to scratch and claw for every run against those guys." After going 1-2-3 in the eighth, the Crushers got the winning run to the plate in the ninth, but Sam Franco grounded out to third to put an end to the comeback attempt. Coming into this weekend's series against the Wild Things, the Crushers had won 13 of their last 15 games and held a three-game lead in the division, but after back-to-back losses, their lead sits at just one game with today's series finale to come. "We want to take it to them again (today)," Lemieux said. "They're chomping at our heels just like we were at theirs earlier in the year, so it's going to be a fun finish." Contact William Cunningham at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.