Lake Erie Crushers Lose on Late Windy City Rally

The held onto their slim playoff lead despite Saturday's 5-4 loss to the Windy City Thunderbolts at .

The Crushers (43-39) remain 1 1/2 games ahead of the Traverse City Beach Bums for the second and final Frontier League Eastern Division playoff spot. The Beach Bums lost to the Joliet Slammers, 5-3, Saturday night. The regular season ends on Sept. 4.

Eric Gonzalez-Diaz pitched seven shutout innings for the Crushers, who led, 1-0, after seven, the team reported. Unfortunately, he pitched into the eighth inning. Windy City rallied, scoring three runs before Gonzalez-Diaz was replaced by Ruben Flores, who gave up two more runs.

The Crushers staged a small comeback of their own, scoring three runs in the bottom of the eighth on Andrew Davis' three-run homer. But that was as close as they'd get.

Gonzalez-Diaz (2-1, 3.20 earned run average) took the loss. Jodam Rivera had two hits and a run scored.

The Crushers and Thunderbolts play in the series finale at 5:05 p.m. Sunday. Josh Roberts (8-5, 4.45) is slated to start for the Crushers.