Baseball: Crushers top ThunderBolts 4-2 in 10 innings
By Steve Millar For Sun-Times Media August 30, 2012 11:00PM
Updated: October 1, 2012 5:37PM
The Windy City ThunderBolts have shown a knack for responding with their backs against the wall, and they did it again Thursday night.
They couldn’t do it a second time, though.
After the T-Bolts rallied from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth, Lake Erie’s Daniel Bowman and Andrew Davis hit back-to-back home runs with two outs in the 10th, sending Windy City to the brink of elimination from playoff contention after a 4-2 loss at Standard Bank Stadium in Crestwood.
Windy City (52-41) is two games behind Florence for the final Frontier League playoff spot with just three contests remaining.
Lake Erie (52-41) did not look primed to score in the 10th after Willy Kesler (1-3) induced a double play, but Bowman homered to straightaway center and Davis followed with a long ball off Michael Click.
The T-Bolts got a man on in the bottom of the inning, but the game ended when Mike Torres hit into a double play.
Brandon Decker started the T-Bolts’ ninth-inning rally off Jonathan Kountis — named the league’s top reliever earlier Thursday — with a single.
Ryan Cuneo followed with a ground-rule double and Decker scored on Zach Aakhus’ groundout. With the tying run at third, Jareck West struck out. Down to his last strike, Bob Glover fouled off two pitches before singling to left to tie the game.
Mike Recchia held Lake Erie scoreless through seven innings, but was matched by Matt Smith.
The Crushers broke the deadlock in the eighth as Brian Erie led off with a single and moved to second on J.C. Figueroa’s sacrifice bunt. Recchia got Jason Taylor on a flyout, but Daniel Bowman delivered a two-out RBI single.
Recchia struck out five and allowed six hits in 72/3 innings.
The Crushers added a run in the ninth on a Robby Kuzdale RBI double off Kesler.
