Boomers take series lead

The Schaumburg Boomers scored twice in the bottom of the eighth inning Saturday night to steal a 6-5 victory from the Lake Erie Crushers in the opening game of the Frontier League championship series.

Trailing 5-4 and without a hit against reliever Matt Smith, who entered in the third, Alexi Colon drew a leadoff walk and Jordan Dean followed with a single to chase Smith.

Brad Duffy’s wild pitch with the bases loaded scored the tying run before Brian McConkey’s single into shallow right put the Boomers in front.

Lake Erie took a 1-0 lead in the first on a solo homer from Daniel Bowman, who finished with 3 hits. The Boomers responded in the bottom of the first with a 3-run blast from Steve McQuail, his third and the team’s eighth of the playoffs.

Lake Erie battled back to tie the game against starter Chris Phelan in the third, with an RBI triple from former Boomer Craig Hertler and an RBI double from Seth Granger.

Dean tripled and scored in the bottom of the inning to chase Lake Erie starter Jason Wilson, who had an ERA under 2.00 in 2 starts against the Boomers as a member of the Florence Freedom.

Two unearned runs put the Crushers ahead in the sixth.

Mike Giovenco threw a scoreless inning to earn his second win of the playoffs. Dexter Price picked up the save, his first, leaving the tying run at third in the ninth.

Dean finished with 3 hits and scored 3 runs for the Boomers.

The Boomers (59-37, 4-0) play Game 2 of the championship series at Boomers Stadium on Sunday at 5 p.m. Right-hander Shawn Sanford (10-6, 2.97/0-0, 3.38) starts for the Boomers against righty Alex Kamisky (7-5, 3.28/0-1, 5.40).