Clarke’s Late Hit Lifts Ports Over Quakes

Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. – Denzel Clarke got the Ports over the proverbial “hump” on Wednesday, by getting things started, and later finishing them off. He scored the first run of the game in the top of the first, then blasted a two run homer in the top of the eighth, scoring fellow Canadian TJ Schofield-Sam in front of him, to provide the margin of victory, in a 7-6 win over Rancho Cucamonga.

The Quakes and Ports combined for thirteen runs, twenty-three hits, and four long balls, a marked contrast from Tuesday's 2-1 affair, as Stockton evened the series Wednesday.

The Ports got off to a fast start with three in the top of the first, scoring two twice, without the ball being put in play. Clarke dashed home on a wild pitch to score the first run, while CJ Rodriguez scored the third on a passed ball, off the glove of Quakes' catcher, Diego Cartya.

Cartya launched a two-run shot in the bottom of the frame, to make it 3-2. The teams exchanged runs, in the third, but the Quakes posted two in the fourth, as a sacrifice fly from Jose Ramos put the home team up 5-4. Stockton's Junior Perez then punished a one-two pitch over the left field wall in the top of the fifth, to even the game at five.

The Stockton bullpen allowed just one run in their four innings of work, setting the stage for Clarke's heroics in the eighth. Jack Owen picked up his first win on the 2022 campaign, throwing a scoreless seventh, while Hunter Breault closed it out, over the final two innings, earning his third save on the season.

Clarke's homer was his sixth and snapped a streak of ten and two-thirds scoreless innings over his last six games, for Quakes' lefty Ronan Kopp. The teams resume the series Thursday night at 6:30 PM at Loan Mart Field, in Rancho Cucamonga.