In front of 5,058 fans, the Lake Erie Crushers won the first ever game played at All Pro Freight Stadium, beating the Windy City ThunderBolts 5-2.
It started well for the Bolts as for the fifth consecutive game, Windy City got a run in the first inning. Gilberto Mejia led off with a double, moved to third and scored on a groundout by Mike Sullivan. A pair of walks helped Lake Erie take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the inning.
An RBI single by Tim Binkoski and an RBI groundout by Wayne Bond in the third and fifth innings respectively pushed the Crushers lead to 4-1.
The ThunderBolts would get a run back in the sixth as Gilberto Mejia led off with a walk and moved to second on a balk. Two batters later, Mike Sullivan singled home Mejia to cut the Lake Erie lead to 4-2. Lake Erie would reclaim the run in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI single by Wayne Bond.
Crushers starter Paul Fagan (2-0) kept the ThunderBolts in check allowing six hits and two runs over eight strong innings. Stephen Flake battled through five innings, taking the loss for Windy City.
J. T. Restko went 1-for-4 in the loss, extending his hitting streak to 10 games, matching Billy Mottram and Brad Hough of Florence for the longest in the Frontier League this season.
Game two of the series will feature Tyler Kelsey (1-0, 4.50) pitching for Windy City against Josh Faiola (0-1, 12.38) for Lake Erie. Wednesday’s day’s game in the Crushers series will be aired on 88.3 FM, WXAV with the pregame show starting at 5:45. Windy City will return home with a Fill ‘R Up Friday on June 5 against the Midwest Sliders. For information or tickets, call 708-489-BALL stop by the Standard Bank Stadium ticket office or go to the team’s website at
www.wcthunderbolts.com.
