The ThunderBolts extended their longest winning streak of the season Sunday night with an 8-5 victory over the Lake Erie Crushers at Standard Bank Stadium. The Bolts are now just .5 games behind the Crushers in the East division.
Windy City jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning on a Jeremy Hamilton groundout that scored Brandon Anderson and a Ryne White two-run single, bringing in Ryan Basham and Zach Aakhus.
The Crushers answered with two second0inning runs. Joel Collins and Casey McGrew both scored on a Dom Duggan single. Duggan now has 20 RBI on the season, ten against the ThunderBolts. Sean Toler settled in after that, allowing just one hit over his final four innings in the game. He went six, earning his second straight victory (2-0).
The Bolts held onto their one-run lead until the fourth, when they broke the game open with a two-run inning. Michael Torres reached on an error and Nick Kuroczko singled ahead of a Gilberto Mejia RBI groundout and an Anderson RBI single. They added single runs in the sixth and seventh to take the 8-2 advantage. The Bolts got RBI contributions from six different players.
Lake Erie made it close with a run in the eighth and in the ninth, against Nick Hall, they loaded up the bases on a hit and two walks before Drew Saylor’s single drove in two runs. But Hall struck out Joel Collins to end the game and give the Bolts their sixth straight win. Phil Rummel allowed seven runs over six innings in taking the loss for the Crushers (2-6).
The ThunderBolts continue their series with the Crushers tomorrow with the chance to leapfrog them in the standings. Dustin Williams (3-3) goes to the mound for Windy City against Lake Erie’s Matthew Smith (7-4). Game time is 7:05. That contest can be heard on WXAV 88.3 fm.
