Lake Erie crushed by errors, missed opportunities in loss to Mississippi Mud Monsters – Morning Journal

The Crushers played a clean game in their 2-1 win against the Mississippi Mud Monsters on Aug. 4, but were unable to do so the next day.

The Crushers and Mud Monsters were tied at 3, but the Mud Monsters pulled away in the sixth inning, defeating the Crushers, 10-4, on Aug. 5.

“I don’t think we played clean,” Crushers manager Jared Lemieux said. “We gave them a little bit (of help) on defense. When you have five errors, you can’t expect to win a ball game. I thought last night, we played a nice, clean game.”

As the Crushers’ self-inflicted wounds resulted in five errors, forcing Frontier League All-Star Edwin Sanchez to throw 97 pitches in 5 2/3 innings.

“Tonight, we didn’t make the play and made Sanchez have to throw extra pitches. When you play clean, you win and when you don’t, this is what happens,” Lemieux said. “We need to get back to how we were playing (on Aug. 4).”

Despite five errors, Sanchez (eight hits, two walks, four strikeouts) did not allow an earned run until two were scored in the sixth inning.

Mud Monsters leadoff man Brayland Skinner went 4-for-6, while teammates Travis Holt, Samil De La Rosa and Slater Shield each recorded two RBI.

2026 has been a challenging year for the 30-44 Crushers. However, a home run from recent trade acquisition Chase Nixon and Samuel Benjamin (two hits, one RBI) were bright spots in the loss.

Following Nixon’s first-inning home run in his first at-bat with the Crushers, the team struggled to capitalize on comeback opportunities.

The Mud Monsters held the Crushers to one run in the final seven innings.

The Mud Monsters converted two double plays, but gave the Crushers runners in scoring position in the seventh, eighth and ninth.

Jarrod Watkins reached home plate on a wild pitch in the seventh.

After scoring three runs in the first two innings, the Mud Monsters held the Crushers to one run in the final seven innings.

Lemieux thought his team hit the ball hard and dropped to the opposing fielders. However, his goal is to have the Crushers maximize runners in scoring positions.

“There is a clutch gene that you need to have as a player, and I want to see that more from my guys,” he said. “We would have stretches where we would have guys be on base and then we would need one big hit to break things open. Today, we were close. … When you get those to fall, then we are in business.”

On Aug. 6, the Crushers will look to bounce back against the 30-44 Mud Monsters.