Hennen Dominates in First Career Shutout in Washington Victory
AVON, Ohio (August 20) - Thanks to Ryan Hennen's first career shutout in a dominant performance in the series opener in Avon, Washington defeated Lake Erie for the third time this season by a final of 1-0 and clinched the season series against the Crushers with its eighth win against them this season.
Washington scored in the first inning with the help of an error. After Andrew Sohn had doubled, Bralin Jackson hit an infield single to short. Lake Erie shortstop Eric Callahan made the stop in the hole on the backhand but his throw was low. It skipped off the glove of Steve Passatempo at first allowing Jackson to reach and Sohn to score on the bounce away from first.
Both starters worked fast and commanded the zone. Ryan Feierabend, in his first outing against Washington, yielded an unearned run on four hits across seven innings and struck out nine for the second-straight start for him and the fourth time this year. It's Feierabend's first season with Lake Erie. The 35-year old has spent parts of five seasons in the bigs with three different teams.
But he was out-dueled by Washington's Ryan Hennen, who didn't allow a base runner and was perfect through four before having that bid broken up with Karl Ellison's single to start the fifth. Hennen got a double play to again face the minimum in the frame. The first time Hennen had to strand a baserunner was in the sixth when he stranded a man in scoring position for the Crushers. In all, the rookie fanned eight over the complete game shutout and allowed just two hits. It's Hennen's first career shutout and complete game.
Scotty Dubrule singled in the fourth inning to extend his season-best hit streak to 14 games and his 2021 Frontier League-high on-base streak to 30 games. He ended up with his 11th multi-hit game of the season.
Washington and Lake Erie meet again tomorrow night in the middle game of the series at 6:05 p.m. Right hander Alex Boshers will toe the rubber for the Wild Things and lefty Paul Hall Jr. is set to start for the Crushers.
