Virbitsky Shines, Ports Edge Rawhide 3-2

VISALIA, Ca. – Kyle Virbitsky fired a career-high seven shutout innings and the Ports scored all of their runs on home runs as Stockton held off a late charge by the Rawhide in a 3-2 win on Friday night at Valley Strong Ballpark in Visalia.

Virbitsky began by dancing out of trouble in the bottom of the first inning. With the game scoreless after the Ports (24-37) failed to score in the top half of the frame, Visalia put runners on second and third with one out after back-to-back singles by Alvin Guzman and Juan Corniel and a groundout to first by Junior Franco. The right-hander buckled down to get a strikeout and groundout to end the threat.

From there Virbitsky was dominant, allowing just a walk and two hits over his final six innings. He finished his outing allowing just five hits over his seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts.

The Ports got on the board in the top of the fifth inning against Rawhide reliever Luis Tejada. With Max Muncy on first base and two outs, Kevin Richards launched a two-run homer to left field to put the Ports on top 2-0.

With the score still 2-0, Nick Brueser gave the Ports another tally with a lead-off solo blast to left field off Visalia left-hander Carlos Meza to make it 3-0.

With Virbitsky out of the game, the Rawhide (17-44) made things interesting in the later innings. Guzman led off the bottom of the eighth inning with an infield single against Stockton reliever Robin Vazquez and after advancing to second on a wild pitch, stole third with one out. Franco then grounded a single through the left side to score Guzman to get Visalia on the board at 3-1. After a walk and double-steal, Visalia put runners on second and third with two outs but Ed Baram notched back-to-back strikeouts to escape the jam.

With the Ports still holding on to a 3-1 lead, Baram hit Oscar Santos with the first pitch of the bottom of the ninth. Santos tagged up to second base on a fly ball to deep right field by Danyer Sanabria and came in to score when J.J. D’Orazio singled down the right field line to bring the Rawhide to within one run. But Baram struck out Guzman and got Corniel to fly out to left field to end the ballgame.

Virbitsky (3-3) picked up the win for the Ports, while Tejada (0-1) was tagged with the loss for Visalia allowing two runs on two hits in his only inning. Baram got the final five outs for his first save with the Ports this season.

Winners of three of the first four games of their series in Visalia, the Ports will go for the series win on Saturday at Valley Strong Ballpark in game five of six against the Rawhide with first pitch at 6:30 pm.