CornBelters use long balls to crush Lake Erie

Posted on July 30, 2016
Corn Crib
(Photo courtesy Facebook/Normal CornBelters)

By Greg Halblieb

NORMAL – The Normal CornBelters scored all of their tallies on four home runs as they defeated the Lake Erie Crushers 8-2 on Friday night at the Corn Crib.

The Belters opened the scoring on a solo drive to the left field lawn in the third inning by Elvin Rodriguez for his first home run of the season. Nolan Meadows followed suit with an opposite-field homer to left to lead off the fourth inning.

The Crushers broke onto the board in the sixth inning on a two-out base hit to left by Bryan De La Rosa to score Eric Grabe, who reached with a lead-off single, but didn’t tally further as they left the bases loaded for the second time.

The CornBelters loaded the bases in their sixth and Craig Lepre powered all runners home on a towering grand slam to the right field lawn for a 6-1 advantage.

Lake Erie plated a lead-off walk in the seventh on a two-out single by Sean Hurley to cut their deficit to 6-2.

Meadows bombed a two-run drive high onto the right field lawn in the seventh to send the Belters ahead 8-2.

Mike Schweiss (6-4) picked up the win with six innings on the mound, giving up one earned run on four hits while surviving seven walks with six strikeouts. Mike Devine (7-4) received the loss, also working six innings with six runs (earned) on eight hits with two walks and four strikeouts.

The series continues Saturday with a 6:35 p.m. first pitch as the CornBelters send Chris Carmain (3-6, 4.77 ERA) while the Crushers counter with Juan Caballero (0-0, 3.75) in a mound match-up of right-handers. The Belters will wear special Julie 811 jerseys that will be auctioned during the contest. The game can be heard live on WJBC.com with pre-game at 6:20.

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