Captain Renshaw Leads Slammers to Game 1 Victory

With his pirate flag flying in center, “Captain” Jake Renshaw lived up to his nickname as he went seven strong innings in Joliet’s 5-2 victory over the Lake Erie Crushers Wednesday night in game one of the first round of the Frontier League playoffs.

Renshaw struck out five batters through the first three innings. The Crushers managed to sneak across an unearned run in the top of the fourth to take the early lead. Jason Taylor and Kellen Kulbacki reached on back-to-back singles. Two outs later it appeared Renshaw was out of the inning when Kyle Boe hit a grounder up the middle to a perfectly positioned Hector Pellot. The ball took a funny hop and Pellot fielded it cleanly. But in his rush to get the ball to Brad Netzel covering second, he could not get the ball out of glove and everyone was safe. The run crossed the plate and the Crushers were up 1-0.

The Slammers didn’t waste much time responding as Erik Lis singled with one away. A walk and a hit by pitch loaded the bases for David Fox. Fox hit a sharp grounder. Jason Taylor made a great diving stop but his only play was to tag the runner coming to third and Lis scored to tie the game.

The fifth inning proved to be Lake Erie starter Paul Fagan’s undoing as Josh Flores tripled to start the frame. One out later Pellot singled him home and Joliet was up 2-1. They weren’t done as Lis doubled in Pellot. Lis advanced to third on the throw home and scored on a Kyle Maunus RBI grounder to make the score 4-1 in favor of the Slammers. Fagan couldn’t get out of the fifth as he went 4.2 innings, giving up four runs on seven hits. He walked one and struck out three in defeat.

The Crushers got a run back in the sixth on a Kellen Kulbacki solo home run. But Renshaw was too much to handle for Lake Erie.

The ever reliable Brian Smith entered the game in the eighth inning and retired the side in order. He was assisted by a great diving catch in left field by Fox to rob Kulbacki of a hit.

Then Joliet native Ryan Quigley did his thing as he retired the Crushers in order in the ninth for the save.

The Slammers will look to go up two games to none in the best-of-five series Thursday night as they send Tommy Mendoza to the mound. First pitch is at 7:05 p.m.