AVON — Erratic pitching, inconsistency at the plate, wild pitches, passed balls and errors all cost Lake Erie on Friday night, but the Crushers really couldn’t pinpoint a major reason for their 8-6 loss to the River City Rascals at All Pro Freight Stadium.
Manager John Massarelli didn’t have any problems with his team’s offensive production.
“If you score six runs, you’re supposed to win the game,” he said. “Pitching and defense win championships and they win games … and we didn’t win tonight.”
Cristobal Mata took the worst of it on the mound for the Crushers, giving up seven runs in 42/3 innings. Mata, who has pitched out of the bullpen all season for Lake Erie, was making his first start since December of 2008, and gave up just one hit through the first three innings before being rouched up for four in the fourth and three more in the fifth.
“I didn’t do anything different in the fourth, they just hit good pitches,” Mata said through an interpreter. “I couldn’t throw the curveball for a strike in that inning, and I had to go to the fastball. Those things happen, but I’m going to work hard and prepare for the next outing.
“I could pitch tomorrow if they needed me to.”
Massarelli didn’t throw Mata under the bus for the loss, but the manager certainly didn’t give his pitcher a vote of confidence after the game.
“You’ll have to ask him (what happened out there),” Massarelli said. “I thought he pitched a little bit nervous. He had a lot of adrenaline tonight, and he got away with some pitches. He got behind the count in (the fourth) inning, and it hurt him.”
The Crushers left 16 men on base during a 10-7 10th-inning loss to the Gateway Grizzlies on Thursday, and left eight more on base during Friday night’s loss. Massarelli bristled when asked if that was a contributing factor in the team’s three-game skid.
“The best-hitting teams in the league leave the most men on base,” he said. “You know why that is? Because they always have men on base … that’s because they can hit. The worst-hitting teams don’t leave men on base because there are never runners on.”
Simple enough logic, yet right fielder Luke Hetherington seemed to be bothered by the recent trend.
“Yesterday I left like five that I could count on base,” said Hetherington, who went 2-for-5 with a double, home run and a pair of RBIs on Friday night. “The (pitcher on Thursday) would have me 2-0 and he was kind of erratic, so I would take instead of being aggressive like I should be hitting in the 4 hole. The guy threw me a pitch right there and I took it. Then he threw me two sliders down and in and I struck out. If I swung and hit that pitch, it probably would have been a double in the right-center gap, we would have scored two runs and probably won the game.”
Hetherington can’t be held totally responsible for any recent individual woes at the plate. He said he suffered a shoulder injury and finally received a cortisone shot before Friday’s game.
“It felt a lot better,” he said. “I was swinging differently the last couple weeks, and tonight I was able to get back to letting go with one hand on my follow through.”
Hetherington also wasn’t about to let the Crushers’ batters off the hook, believing that many of the recent losses could have been turned around with even more timely hitting.
“We’re losing all the close games,” he said. “The last six games we have been scuffling a little bit at the plate. There aren’t really holes (in our lineup), but we’re going to cool off a bit and we’re going to face pitchers that are getting better.
“We just got our (batting) cage up a week ago, so now we can get a little extra hitting in.”

Notable

Catcher Kylee Hash, who was signed Thursday night to fill the roster spot of pitcher Brad Davidson, made his Lake Erie debut when he came in defensively in the ninth inning.
♦ The Crushers placed right-handed reliever Alberto Rolon on the 15-day injured reserve list prior to Thursday’s game. Rolon had been experiencing fatigue in his right shoulder.
Contact Shaun Bennett at 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com.

TONIGHT

WHO: Lake Erie Crushers vs. River City Rascals
TIME: 7:05
WHERE: All Pro Freight Stadium, Avon
PITCHERS: Kevin Skogley vs. Josh Lowey
WEBCAST: All games can be heard live on LakeErieCrushers.com.

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