The Lake Erie Crushers were held to just four hits on Friday evening at All Pro Freight Stadium, as they fell to the Schaumburg Boomers, 4-0, in the 2012 opener.
The Bombers (1-0) were also held to only four hits, but capitalized on a few key hits and a pair of Lake Erie (0-1) errors.
Lake Erie starter Paul Fagan (0-1) retired the first two batters of the contest, before the Bombers received three consecutive singles from Gerard Hall, Frank Pfister, and Nick Baumann. Baumann's base hit, the third in that sequence plated Hall to score the first run of the contest.
The Bombers added to their advantage in the top of the third inning. Pfister reached on Russ Moldenhauer's fielding error at first base, and came around to score with two outs on a wild pitch to take a 2-0 lead.
Schaumburg doubled its lead by plating a pair of runs in the fifth. Chad Mozingo was hit by a pitch to start the inning, and moved into scoring position on an errant pickoff attempt by Fagan. Mozingo scored moments later on Jereme Milons's double to left-center. A wild pitch moved Milons to third, and he came home on Hall's sacrifice fly.
While the Bombers offense was opportunistic in the first five innings of the contest, the Crushers' bullpen kept them off the bases in the second half of the contest. Four Crushers, Randy Sturgill, Kelyn Schellenberg, Chance Gilmore, and Jonathan Kountis combined to toss four perfect innings of relief.
The Crushers put together a minor threat in the bottom of the ninth. Andrew Davis began the inning with a single, and made his way to third on Adrian Ortiz's two out knock. Ortiz stole second base to put a pair in scoring position. The game ended, after Drew Heithoff made a terrific diving play on a scorching one hopper to second base off the bat of Kellen Kulbacki.
Fagan allowed four runs, three earned on four hits over five innings and suffered the loss. Schaumburg's Robby Donovan (1-0) earned the victory after pitching five scoreless innings, and allowing just a pair of hits, while striking out five in the process.
The loss drops the Crushers' record to 2-2 all time in home openers, and opening day contests. The victory for the expansion Boomers was their first as a member of the Frontier League. Davis paced the Crushers offensively, with a 2-for-4 performance, while Jason Taylor reached three times in four plate appearances.
The Crushers will continue their series with the Boomers at All Pro Freight Stadium on Saturday night. Right hander Eric Gonzalez-Diaz (0-0, 0.00) will take the mound for the Crushers, and the Boomers will counter with left hander Cameron Roth (0-0, 0.00). The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 PM.
