The Wild Things have a playoff berth secured and can see the light at the end of the Frontier League tunnel – a West Division regular-season title – so days like this do not change the vibe in the clubhouse. After all, Washington is 16-4 over its last 20 games, including a 3-1 loss Sunday to Lake Erie Crushers. Washington saw one game trimmed off its lead in the West as second-place Gateway pulled to within six.
Both teams have 12 games remaining. The real race and intrigue in the West involves Lake Erie and Schaumburg, the two teams vying for the final wild-card playoff spot as the third-place team. Lake Erie currently has a 31⁄2-game lead over the Boomers, which is why the victory over Washington was so important for the Crushers.
Lake Erie heads back to Avon, Ohio, to begin a nine-game homestand starting Tuesday against Schaumburg followed by a series next weekend against the Wild Things. The Crushers would like a few more games that unfold just like Sunday’s contest. Lake Erie got a solo home run from first baseman Scout Knotts in the fifth inning for a 1-0 lead, added to it with a two-run seventh before turning the game over to their hard-throwing relievers.
“We have nine in a row at home coming up and it’s going to be nice to play in front of our home fans down the stretch,” Lake Erie manager Jared Lemieux said. “The boys have put in a lot of hard work. The travel has been rough.
We were in Gateway (Sauget, Ill.) Thursday night before coming here and had.