Storm Walk-off Quakes For Third Time of Homestand, Take Series Victory Presented by The Valley News
No love is lost between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers. That heated rivalry has become so potent that it has made its way throughout the entire organization. The Lake Elsinore Storm and Rancho Cucamonga Quakes have played four bitterly close ball games with plenty of sparks flying
No love is lost between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers. That heated rivalry has become so potent that it has made its way throughout the entire organization. The Lake Elsinore Storm and Rancho Cucamonga Quakes have played four bitterly close ball games with plenty of sparks flying between the two dugouts. Luckily for the hometown team, the Storm have had the advantage. They won their fourth consecutive game tonight needing to go all the way to the 11th inning to get the job done.
It began much differently than it ended.
The Quakes took a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Starting Pitcher Eric Yost would ultimately only go three innings allowing three runs as he gave up another in the third. As the Storm have done all series long, they battled back and scored three runs in the third inning. This onslaught was punctuated by Alain Camou when his single brought the tying run home.
The teams would remain deadlocked at three runs until Ryan Wilson blasted his first home run of the season far over the left field wall to break the tie. This gave the Storm their first lead of the night. Will Varmette and Kobe Robinson would then combine for five innings pitched, three hits allowed, five strikeouts, and not a single run scored against them. These dominant relief outings ended with an exclamation point in the top of the 8th when Robinson had the first 1-2-3 inning of the game for Lake Elsinore.
Unfortunately, the Quakes would tie the game once more in the 9th and the game would be sent into extra innings for the third time in four games.
This also did not begin so well.
Keegan Collett would enter the game and allow three runs, two earned, in the top of the 10th. In the bottom of the inning, four consecutive Storm players would get on base including an RBI single from Leodalis De Vries who is hitting .400 with an OPS of 1.1000 in this homestand. Romeo Sanabria would then hit a sacrifice fly ball that tied the game and it was onto the eleventh.
Collett would stay in the game and after walking the first two batters, two consecutive strikeouts and a groundout would end the frame without a run scoring. This would give the Storm quite the opportunity with the ghost runner already at second base. Ryan Wilson would fly out to center field before Nick Vogt shot a single just past the diving second baseman, into right field, and slow enough to get Alain Camou to home plate for the win.
This was the Storm's incredible third walk-off of the homestand and fourth victory. They have now clinched the series and put themselves alone ion the top spot of the California League South. The Storm now have just two games remaining before they leave for Inland Empire and they need to win just one of those games to keep sole possession of first place.
Just 19 games currently remain to determine the First Half Champions.