Jul 13, 2025 By Chris Dugan 4 min read

The Frontier League has reached its all-star break. As far as the Wild Things are concerned, it has arrived three days too late.

Entering the weekend, Washington was coming off a series sweep of scuffling Evansville and sitting in first place in the Central Division.

The Wild Things awakened today in second place in the division and wondering what happened to their offense.

Lake Erie shut out Washington in the first two games of the series and finished a sweep Sunday as former major leaguer Alfredro Gonzalez homered on his 33rd birthday and the Crushers turned four double plays en route to a 5-2 victory.

The sweep moves Lake Erie a half-game ahead of the Wild Things, who have lost 10 of their last 16 games.

Washington manager Tom Vaeth admitted that the break should help his club, but nothing is guaranteed.

“It gives me time to find new guys,” Vaeth said. “I don’t know if it will be done, but I have time to look.”

Vaeth will likely be looking for guys who can generate runs. The Wild Things were held scoreless for 26 consecutive innings during the homestand, which is believed to be a franchise record. The 2010 team went 24 straight innings without generating a run.

In the series, Washington had only three baserunners advance as far as third base. Two of those were the two runs the Wild Things scored in the finale.

Carlos Amezquita hit a leadoff double in the fifth inning against Lake Erie starter Dylan Spain (4-2), advanced to third on an infield single by Jeff Liquori and scored when Three Hiller bounced into a double play, snapping the long scoreless streak and cutting the Crushers’ lead to 3-1.

Washington made it 3-2 with a run in the sixth. Tommy Caufield walked, stole second base and scored on Andrew Czech’s line-drive single.

That was all for the Washington scoring and Lake Erie tacked onto its lead with two runs in the seventh, using two walks, a sacrifice bunt, sacrifice fly and RBI double by Burle Dixon.

The Crushers had entered the series riding a three-game losing streak.

“That was a good bounce-back after some tough losses to Schaumburg,” Lake Erie manager Jared Lemieux said. “We know we’re in a fight with these guys (Washington) for the division title, so it’s good to win three games. The guys are playing selfless, playing for each other.

“We had better energy in this series, and that’s all organic. I can’t create that. The guys are all supporting each other.”

Spain went five innings for the win. He was given the 3-0 lead when the Crushers scored twice in the second inning against Washington starter Zach Kirby (3-3) and Gonzalez hit a leadoff homer in the fifth inning.

Spain was followed on the mound by three relievers. Leonard Rodriguez pitched the ninth inning for his third save.

“All series, they completely outplayed us,” Vaeth said. “They were better than us in all phases. They got guys on and moved them over.”

Extra bases

The start of the game was delayed 39 minutes because of rain. … The Wild Things made several roster moves before the game. They traded infielder/pitcher Cael Chatham to Southern Maryland of the Atlantic League in exchange for future considerations. They also placed pitcher Dominic Puccetti on the 7-day injured list. Puccetti was Washington’s starting pitcher Saturday night. First baseman Tyreque Reed was transferred from the 7-day IL to the 14-day. Washington played Sunday’s game with the league minimum 22 active players. … Washington opens the post all-star break portion of the schedule on Friday with a series at East Division leader Sussex County. Lake Erie hosts Evansville, which has lost 12 straight games.