The Lake Erie Crushers have been seeking some timely hits.
It took an extra inning, but designated hitter Ty Nelson came through at the perfect time with a walk off home run in the bottom of the 10th to defeat Evansville, 5-4, May 27.
With two out in the bottom of the 10th, Nelson took a breaking pitch outside before sending the next pitch deep over the left-field wall for his second home run of the season.
‘We didn’t really want to go into many more extra innings after that. I just kind of went up there and got lucky with getting a pitch to hit and put a good swing on it,’ Nelson said.
Evansville used a pair of home runs in the first and second innings off the bats of third baseman Shayne Houck and right fielder Chris Sweeney for a 2-0 lead. The Crushers crafted an early opportunity in the first, but all three outs occurred in the form of baserunning blunders.
Center fielder Justin Cureton and second baseman Trevor Stevens hit consecutive singles to start the inning, but Cureton was caught in a run down between third and home, and Stevens was caught wandering too far off second. First baseman Jose Barraza, who reached on the fielder’s choice, was immediately picked off for the third out.
The Crushers tied it in the second inning and took a 3-2 lead in the third, but Sweeney struck again, blasting his second home run of the afternoon to left in the sixth inning. Designated hitter Kurt Wertz Jr. followed with a single and scored on a double by second baseman Josh Allen.
Lake Erie had a walk off opportunity in its share of the ninth as left fielder Nick Zaharion singled and pinch runner Aaron Lindgren reached third, but the Crushers could not capitalize, setting the table for Nelson’s 10th-inning heroics.
‘He pretty much takes the same approach all the time and he’s been having good at-bats all year,’ Crushers manager Chris Mongiardo said.
Mongiardo also said he hopes Nelson’s timely hit leads to more situational offense in the future.
‘I’m hoping that we can start stringing some more hits together and get some two-out hits, and when we threaten like that early on, we don’t run ourselves out of the inning,’ Mongiardo said.
The Lake Erie bullpen also contributed to Nelson’s walk-off opportunity after starter Brad Zambron lasted four innings in which he allowed two earned runs – both home runs – on six hits.
Relievers Mike Devine and Brad Duffy combined to allow two earned runs on three hits through two innings, but the remainder of relievers blanked the Otters’ bats for four innings.
Nelson was 2-for-5 on the afternoon, boosting his average to a team-leading .342. Though he’s had his share of walk-off hits in the past, Nelson noted he doesn’t care how they happen.
‘It was a walk-off today but if it’s bases loaded, he (the pitcher) walks a guy, we score, it doesn’t matter,’ Nelson said. ‘However we win, a win’s good. …It just so happens that sometimes you get lucky like that.’
