Despite only giving up one more hit than they mustered up themselves, the Wild Things, behind Gary Lee, fell to the Lake Erie Crushers by a score of 4-2 at CONSOLE Energy Park.
The Wild Things started their bats off early in the bottom of the second inning. Shain Stoner hit a two-run shot, his seventh of the season, to put Washington up 2-0. The Wild Things drew two walks, two hits, and two runs in the inning.
Lee pitched 3.0 innings of no-hit baseball for the Wild Things, but managed to let the fourth inning get out hand. He surrendered a leadoff single to Craig Hertler to start off the top of the fourth. Max Casper hit another single, sending Hertler to third, putting runners on the corners and no outs. Lee didn’t help himself out any when he threw a pass ball that allowed Hertler to score and put Casper in scoring position with Andrew Davis at the plate. Davis would make it on base, again putting runners at the corners before Lee and the Things would get their first out of the inning. The excitement wouldn’t last for long, though, as Anderson Hidalgo drove in the second run of the inning on a base hit single, the third of the inning for the Crushers. Luckily, Lee would get out of the inning without allowing any more damage.
Unfortunately for Washington, Lake Erie would add two more runs in the top of the 7th to break the 2-2 tie.
After Russell Moldenhauer singled to start the inning and Lee hit Seth Granger, Hertler was able to drive both of them in on a base hit single.
The Wild Things would strand one base runner in the 8th and one in the 9th to end the game.
Lee finished his night after 7.0 innings of work, allowing 9 hits and 4 runs.
Jovan Rosa had 3 hits for the Wild Things on the night and Stoner finished with 2 hits, including the home run.
The two teams will square off for the second game of the series tomorrow night at 11:05 am ET at CONSOLE Energy Park in Washington, PA.
Photo Credit: Washington Wild Things
