By: Braeden Jones
AVON, OH – In a game where the Joliet Slammers (19-25) had both pitching and batting go right for them against the Lake Erie Crushers (20-26), the Slammers got a strong 9-2 victory on Tuesday.
The Slammers found themselves with an opportunity to get on the board first when Ian Battipaglia and Tyler Cerny both hit singles to start the top of the 1st inning. Standing at third base, Battipaglia would indeed get his team in the scoring column first when he came around to home plate off a wild pitch. Cerny would follow shortly after when Jackson Valera had a ground out that gave Cerny enough time to make it home from third base. That started the game with Joliet in the lead at 2-0.
The Slammers’ scoring would continue when the top of the 2nd inning rolled around. After Patrick Ward started off this half-inning by getting walked, he would come all the way home from first base when Jackson Beaman hit a double. Beaman would find his way around the bases as well once Brandon Heidal hit a single. Joliet had quickly doubled their lead to 4-0 after just two innings.
The top of the 3rd was no different for the Slammers. Valera and Cam Suto got on base with a single and double respectively, and a Ward double brought them both home. For the third straight inning, Joliet put two scores on the board to now bring their total to 6-0.
The Crushers finally found some life when the bottom of the 5th inning arrived. In just the second total hit of the game for Lake Erie, Garret Pike led off the half-inning with a solo homer to give his team their first score of the night. While that was all the action that happened in the 5th inning, it still moved the score to 6-1.
The Crushers would come back in the bottom of the 6th to advance the score again. Sebastian Alexander would get a single and steal second base in what was just the third hit for his team. Joe Redfield would get a single to follow that hit to score Alexander, so the score was now doubled for Lake Erie. Unfortunately for them, however, they were still down 6-2.
The Slammers had the lead, but hadn’t hit a home run like the Crushers yet. Kadon Morton decided to change that by hitting a solo shot to start off the top of the 8th inning, now giving his team the 7-2 advantage.
But one home run wasn’t enough for Joliet as after Ward was walked in the top of the 9th, Beaman would slam a ball out of the park to close the game. The Slammers would win their first game at ForeFront Field this season with a 9-2 final score.
The Slammers will look to keep the momentum from this game rolling into the next when they play the Crushers again on Wednesday. After a rough loss in front of their home crowd, Lake Erie will try to bounce back on Wednesday for the second game of the series against Joliet.
