Lake Elsinore Storm Drop Close Game to Quakes on Christmas in July

Another top Padres prospect made their Diamond debut tonight for the Lake Elsinore Storm. This time, it was the Padres' number one draft pick in 2022, Dylan Lesko. The hard-throwing right-hander would arrive with a fervor of anticipation.

He would go three innings, striking out four batters, walking three, and would ultimately bound off the field without giving up a single run. As many are aware, Ethan Salas was the initial top prospect that joined the Storm with incredible online excitement. He has since, risen drastically up the MiLB Prospect Rankings and is now the 48th-ranked prospect in baseball.

Samuel Zavala began the night with an RBI single and Devin Ortiz followed shortly after with his third and fourth RBIs of the series to increase the lead to 3-0. The Quakes would get within one in the fourth when Wilton Castillo relieved Lesko.

Zavala would mash his third home run of the series, both coming in the previous two days. Unfortunately, the two-run lead would not last long. Two home runs would score three runs in the sixth inning and give the Quakes their first lead of the night. Devin Ortiz would tie the game in the seventh, collecting his fifth RBI of the homestand.

Unfortunately, David Morgan would come in for the 9th and surrender two runs to necessitate a sizeable comeback for the Storm, if they wanted to win two consecutive games for the first time in this series. Nick Vogt would homer in the bottom of the ninth to cut the deficit to one but the game would conclude on a highly contentious call that rubber-stamped the back-and-forth nature of this series.

The Storm will play again tomorrow night during the stadium's Halfway to Halloween promotion.

-Written by Justin Jett