Miners return to .500 on the season
The Sussex County Miners (24-24) defeated the Lake Erie Crushers (22-30) 6-0 behind a complete-game shutout from All-Star Rob Hensey at ForeFront Field in Avon, Ohio.
The Miners got to work right away in the first inning. After Hunter D’Amato’s ground-ball single to the pitcher and an eight-pitch walk for Gabriel Maciel, Edwin Mateo pulled through with a two-run RBI fly-ball single to left field, giving the Miners an early 2-0 cushion. Little did the Miners and Crushers know that those two runs would put the game beyond reach early on.
Hensey (6-4) was fresh off his second Frontier League All-Star selection and an elite pitching performance against the red-hot New York Boulders, in which he allowed only one hit over seven innings. Hensey was stellar again, blanking Lake Erie while allowing only two hits and fanning five. It is the second consecutive year that a Miners pitcher has accomplished this feat, with Mike Reagan going the distance in a 12-0 win against the Ottawa Titans in June of last season.
While Hensey shut down the Crushers’ bats, the Miners kept piling on insurance. Sandro Gaston homered to left field in the top of the fourth, making it 3-0. Evan Berkey coming home after a wild pitch by Gauge Lockhart and Will Zimmerman’s sac fly would add two more in the sixth. In the seventh, Lake Erie’s left fielder, Sebastian Alexander, made a leaping web-gem catch that robbed Edwin Mateo of a grand slam. Mateo, however, was credited with a sac fly on the play, collecting his third RBI of the game and driving in Haiden Walters to lead the Miners to a 6-0 victory.
It was a game that the Miners couldn’t have pictured any better. An elite starting-pitching performance resulted in a complete-game shutout by Hensey, and the Miners found a way to score on scrappy sac-flies, a task they have struggled with for most of the season. Hensey is now back on top of the Frontier League strikeout leaderboard with 72 on the season.
The Miners improve to 24-24 on the season with a month and a half still yet to play. They will look to take the second game of the series, with a noon first pitch time. Fans can watch live on the Frontier League Network via HTN or listen on Mixlr. Streaming links are available at scminers.com.
Written by Justin Haight
Above: Rob Hensey (photo by Phil Hoops)