After two tough defeats, the ThunderBolts salvaged game three of their series against the Lake Erie Crushers with a 1-0 victory behind 8.1 great innings thrown by Brent Solich Sunday night at All Pro Freight Stadium in Avon, OH.
After Crushers starter Josh Roberts retired the first seven ThunderBolts he faced, JT Restko, getting his first at bat of the series, bounced the first pitch he saw over the left field wall for a ground-rule double. Nick Kuroczko’s single moved Restko up to third and Gilberto Mejia flew out to right, scoring Restko for the 1-0 lead.
As it turned out, Mejia’s sacrifice fly was all the Bolts would need as Solich pitched his best game of the year. He only struck out two in his stay in the game, but he walked only one in the shutout effort. The Crushers had at least one man on base in every inning through seven but could not break through.
The closest they came was in the fifth. With runners at first and second and one out, Jodam Rivera hit a potential double play grounder to second. Mejia, though, lost his footing as he threw on to second, pulling Michael Torres off the bag. Arden McWilliams rounded third and Torres threw in his direction to try recording the out but the ball flew past the third baseman, Kuroczko. As McWilliams broke for the plate, Kuroczko recovered and threw home to retire McWilliams. Andrew Davis grounded out to end the threat.
Roberts threw seven innings for Lake Erie and Alberto Rolon followed him up with two perfect frames out of the bullpen, but it wasn’t enough. The ThunderBolts were retired in order in six of nine innings, but their third inning run held for the win. Solich improved to 4-5 with the victory, allowing six hits in the game. Roberts fell to 5-1. Nick Hall recorded the final two outs of the game for his seventh save.
The Bolts are back in action on Monday night against the Washington Wild Things. Game time from CONSOL Energy Park is scheduled for 6:05. The game can be heard on Sportsjuice.com.
