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Lake Erie wins battle of the bullpens

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The Wild Things and Lake Erie Crushers started rummaging through their bullpens early Sunday evening, and for different reasons.

Lake Erie did a better job of rummaging, and thus came away with a victory that prevented Washington from getting a series sweep. The Crushers closed the game with eight scoreless innings, using six different pitchers to do so, and pulled out a 6-4 come-from-behind victory.

Relievers Brayden Bonner (1-2), Trevor Kuncil, Darrien Ragins, Perry Bewley and Alexis Rivero combined for five shutout innings, allowing only one hit.

“We have some quality arms back there and everyone is on the same page with their roles,” said Lake Erie’s first-year manager Jared Lemieux.

“Some situations arose in which I had some pitchers I wanted to throw to certain guys and we were rewarded.”

Those eight-shutout innings came on the heels of a four-run first inning by Washington that included back-to-back home runs. Andrew Czech hit a towering two-run shot over the batter’s eye in center field that gave the Wild Things a 3-0 lead and right fielder Anthony Brocato followed with a solo shot to the scoreboard beyond left centerfield off Lake Erie starter Kyle Seebach.

Seebach, a 6-8 lefthander, regrouped and threw three scoreless innings before exiting the game after being struck by a single off the bat of Nick Gotta to start the fifth. That began the Crushers’ parade of relievers.

Washington had only three hits after the big first inning: Gotta’s single, Robert Chayka’s double off the centerfield wall in the second and a double to the gap in right centerfield by Tristan Peterson in the ninth.

“I don’t know where our offense was after the first inning,” Washington manager Tom Vaeth said.

Washington went to its bullpen in the fifth inning after getting four strong frames from newly acquired starter Hayden Shenefield. The righthander had thrown only seven innings over seven relief appearances this season for Southern Maryland of the Atlantic League and the Wild Things had him on a pitch-count limit.

The Wild Things acquired Shenefield in a trade with Southern Maryland. Shenefield was the second of two players to be named acquired by Washington in the trade that sent pitcher Sandro Cabrera to Southern Maryland in the offseason.

To make room for Shenefield on the roster, Washington released pitcher Angel Landazuri (0-2, 8.27). Coincidentally, Landazuri was the first player to be named that Washington received in the Cabrera trade.

Shenefield scattered four hits and allowed one run. He induced two ground-ball double plays and left leading 4-1 after throwing 56 pitches.

“Hayden was exactly what we thought,” Vaeth said. “He had a nice mix of pitches and commanded the strike zone.”

Lake Erie took a 5-4 lead by scoring four runs off reliever Greg Loukinen (2-3) in the fifth. The Crushers hit four doubles in the inning, including a pair of with two outs by Jack Harris and Jiandido Tromp.

Justin Showalter relieved Loukinen and allowed one run on three hits over 4 1/3 innings.

“I though Hayden did a great job. Showalter did, too,” Vaeth said.

“I’ll hang this loss on me. I tried to squeeze one inning out to help our bullpen and it caught us.”

Notes

Prior to the game, Washington placed left-handed starting pitcher Kobe Foster (2-0, 1.29) on the 7-day disabled list retroactive to June 1. Foster left his start last Tuesday at Florence with an injury. Vaeth had said on Friday that Foster was expected to start the series opener at New Jersey on Tuesday.

“Kobe is not ready to pitch. I don’t know when he’ll pitch,” Vaeth said Sunday.

The Wild Things have 23 active players, one under the league maximum.

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