O’FALLON, MO–The River City Rascals dropped their second consecutive game on Sunday night to the Lake Erie Crushers, this time by a final score of 5-4. It gave the Crushers the two-games-to-one series victory. Lake Erie starting pitcher Nick Deeg (2-0) allowed just one hit and one run in 6.1 innings. He walked five and struck out one.
The Crushers scored five runs in the fourth inning, on a home run by Conner Simonetti, an error by Rascals’ shortstop JD Hearn, an RBI single from Dane Hutcheon, a sacrifice fly by Cameron Newell and an RBI double from Kevin LaChance. They sent 10 men to the plate in the inning.
The Rascals countered with an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth from Braxton Martinez, then pulled within one after a three-run bottom of the eighth. Zach Lavy roped an RBI double to the gap in left-center and Clint Freeman blasted a two-run shot to right to cut the lead to one. Connor Oliver singled with one out in the bottom of the ninth against Crushers closer Justin Sinibaldi, who earned his fourth save, but was cut down trying to steal second base by Crushers catcher Bryan De La Rosa to end the game.
Lucas Laster (1-1) took the loss for the Rascals, allowing five runs (two earned) in 3.2 innings. Anthony Paesano, Jacob Gangelhoff and Logan Fanning combined to throw 5.1 scoreless innings out of the Rascals bullpen.
The Rascals (9-5) are off Monday and head to Sauget, IL for a three-game set with the crosstown rival Gateway Grizzlies starting on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 pm CT at GCS Ballpark. Ryne Buchanan will have the call on CityLink TV, with coverage starting at 6:55. Hector Hernandez is expected to start for the Rascals.
