The River City Rascals (0-1) finished the night with eleven hits but were unable to complete the comeback as they fell on the road in the season opener, 7-5, against the Lake Erie Crushers (1-0) Thursday night.
Coming off a 56-40 season, the Rascals took their first lead of the 2016 campaign in the opening frame, when Kyle Gaedele doubled and came home to score on an error from Crushers third baseman Juan Avilia.
The Rascals wouldn’t hold the lead for long as opening day starter Joe Scanio allowed a leadoff double and a RBI single from Parks Jordan to tie the game at one. After a strikeout from Scanio, catcher Jose Barraza gave the Crushers the lead with another single scoring Jordan, who was on second after a stolen base.
Lake Erie added two more hits in the second inning before a sacrifice fly from leadoff hitter Connor Oliver extended the lead to 3-1.
After a shutout inning from Joe Scanio in the third, the Rascals loaded the bases in the fourth and chased starter Todd Kibby out of the game. Dominique Taylor beat out an infield single to score Josh Silver and Johnny Morales came up with a huge two out, two RBI single to retake the lead, 4-3.
That would be the final lead the Rascals would hold as it took three pitchers in the home half of the fourth to retire the Crushers. Scanio was pulled after allowing three hits, including two runs giving the home team the lead and Vin Roth allowed a two RBI single to Jose Barraza extending the Crushers lead to 7-4. Scanio was tagged with the loss, giving up six runs on seven hits in three 1/3 innings.
Rascals relievers Nick Kennedy, Michael Gunn and Zac Treece combined to hold the opponents hitless the final four innings and Willi Martin got the Rascals within two with a pinch-hit RBI single scoring Josh Silver in the eighth. However, Taylor struck out with two runners in scoring position to cap the Rascals offense at five runs on eleven hits.
“Kennedy, Gunn and Treece had really good innings and we did a lot of good things as a team overall,” seventh year manager Steve Brook said. “Even Vin Roth after the walk, he came back and threw strikes and just got a bad break there when the ball found a hole. We will be back at it tomorrow.”
“We put together some good at-bats, we got unlucky at certain times and couldn’t get the big hit,” returning infielder Josh Silver said. “If we take those at-bats into tomorrow and get the key hits we should be good.”
Other highlights for the Rascals offensively include multi-hit games from three players (Taylor, Morales, Silver) and Robby Enslen’s first hit as a professional baseball player.
The Crushers used eight relievers, with Michael Devine earning the win and Colin Feldtman the save.
The opening series continues Friday night as Tim Koons looks to get the Rascals their first win of the season. First pitch scheduled for 7:05 EST and can be heard on rascals.caster.fm.
