BEACH BUMS DROP CRUSHERS

7/19/2010 - AVON, OH – The Traverse City Beach Bums got strong relief pitching and a clutch bases loaded hit from J. T. Hall as the Beach Bums downed the Lake Erie Crushers 4-2. J. T. Hall in a John Russell file photo.

Lake Erie took a 1-0 first inning lead as Jodam Rivera came in to score on a throwing error. The Beach Bums got the run back in the next inning as C. J. Ziegler lined his eighth homer of the season out to left to knot the game at 1-1. It was Ziegler’s fourth homerun against the Crushers on the season.

TC kept on the offensive in the third inning as walks to Brandon Howard and Chase Burch and a single by Jason Codiroli loaded up the base for J. T. Hall who smacked a first pitch fastball into the left-centerfield gap for a bases clearing double and a 4-1 Beach Bums advantage.

The Crushers got a run in the bottom of the third as a wild pitch scored Andrew Davis to cut the lead to 4-2. Both teams continued to get baserunners throughout the game as the Beach Bums saw the Crushers turn three double plays against them to get out of innings. Traverse City only turned one DP, but forced Lake Erie to strand eight baserunners through the first six innings.

The bullpen took over for Traverse City at that point and shut the door on Lake Erie. David Slovak came in to get the final out of the fifth inning and strand a runner before tossing two more hitless inning to keep the Crushers at bay. Scott Mueller was summoned from the pen for a perfect ninth to earn his eighth save.

The win went to Enrique Lechuga (4-3) who pitched 5.2 innings allowing four hits and two runs. Esmelvin Jimenez (5-3) took the loss for the Crushers.

Offensively Matt Brown had a pair of hits for the Beach Bums and J. T. Hall drove in three.

The second game against the Crushers will be on Tuesday night at 7:05 p.m. with Michael Moore (4-1, 2.46) starting for TC against Phil Rummel (2-4, 5.68) for Lake Erie. The pregame show will begin at 6:45 p.m. on Sunny Country 101.9. For more information or tickets, call 231-943-0100 or visit tcbeachbums.com.