Jul 15, 2018 4 min read

The Frontier League’s tiebreaker format, in which each half-inning after the 10th begins with a runner on second base and no outs, is one that favors a team that can sacrifice bunt. Simply bunt the runner to third base and you have at least two chances to drive him home.

That’s the approach the Lake Erie Crushers took in the 11th and 12th innings Sunday night against the Wild Things. They had Joel McKeithan, their cleanup hitter, drop down a sacrifice bunt in the 11th and Dalton Wheat started the next inning with a perfect sacrifice bunt. Those small-ball tactics helped Lake Erie score and take one-run leads in each inning.

However, Washington fought off both match points and sent the game to a 13th inning tied at 4-4.

So what did Lake Erie’s Doug Trimble, the No. 6 hitter in the Crushers’ lineup, do when he was the first batter in the 13th inning and hitting against his former college teammate, Washington relief pitcher James Meeker?

Trimble was told to swing instead of bunt.

It proved to be a winning decision.

Trimble hit a two-run homer to left field and Lake Erie’s Louis Cohen pitched out of a full-blown jam in the bottom of the inning as the Crushers defeated the Wild Things 6-5 to sweep the three-game series.

“One of the coaches told me they were going to let me swing it, so I had that mindset going into the at-bat,” explained Trimble, a rookie out of the University of Delaware, where he was teammates with Meeker (0-1).

“I’m thankful that the coaches had confidence in me. … I had faced Meeker in fall ball at Delaware, in practice games. I faced him for the first time in a real game Friday night.”

That resulted in a harmless groundout. This time, Trimble had a better result.

“I had a set approach to be aggressive against him,” Trimble explained. “I was looking for something up, something offspeed, and that’s what I got.”

Trimble’s fourth home run of the season also scored Cody Lenahan, who began the inning at second base. Lenhan also played a key role in the ninth inning when his surprise bunt single was aided by a throwing error by Washington closer Zach Strecker. Two batters later, Lenahan scored on a single from Dustin Williams that tied the score at 2-2.

The loss, combined with Joliet’s extra-innings win at Windy City, leaves the Wild Things tied for first place in the East Division with the Slammers. Lake Erie is only a half-game back.

“Lake Erie is a better team than we are,” Washington manager Gregg Langbehn lamented. “They hit better than we do, they pitch better than we do and they execute better than we do. They’re better than we are.

“That’s just who we are right now. We’re lucky to be tied for first place.”

Lake Erie took a 3-2 lead in the 11th on a run-scoring single by Trimble, who was 3-for-6 with four RBI. Washington tied it when James Harris, on the first pitch of the bottom of the 11th, laced a single up the middle to score Brett Marr from second base. The Crushers again took the lead in the 12th on a single by Tyler Cowles, but Washington answered with a two-out RBI single by Jordan Edgerton.

The laundry list of what the Wild Things didn’t do well in the series was a long one. The most glaring in the finale was an inability to put down a sacrifice bunt in both the 11th and 13th innings.

Singles by Marr and Harris pulled Washington to within 6-5 in the 13th, and Carter McEachern had a chance to advance the runners to second and third but his sacrifice bunt was popped up for the inning’s first out. After a forceout, Cohen (2-0) walked Kyle Pollock to load the bases with two outs but he struck out Hector Roa to end the game.

Roa hit a solo homer in the seventh inning that gave Washington a 2-1 lead but Lake Erie battled back to complete the series sweep.

“They found ways to win and we found ways to lose,” Langbehn said. “We’re not competitive against them.”

Extra bases

Washington third baseman Mike Hill left the game in the seventh inning with a calf injury. … Wild Things starting pitcher Chase Cunningham gave up six hits and one run over seven strong innings. … Washington begins a six-game road trip Tuesday at Normal.