Sixers Comeback Falls Short in 8-7 Loss to Storm

San Bernardino, CA- The Inland Empire 66ers scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth but fell a run shy of their comeback attempt as the Lake Elsinore Storm held on for a 8-7 win at San Manuel Stadium on Sunday. The loss was the fourth straight for the Sixers as the Storm won its sixth consecutive game.

The Storm deluged the Sixers with early runs as Michael Gettys and Ty France each homered in the first against Inland Empire starter Justin Anderson (4-9) to take a 3-0 lead. Edwin Moreno launched a three-run jack in the second to make the lead 6-0 in the second. It was his ninth of the season. Lake Elsinore (47-47, 15-9) made it 8-0 in the fourth when Moreno struck again. He tagged a RBI triple and then came home on Luis Urias' sac fly. Moreno collected three triples and a homer in the first 13 innings of the series. All eight runs were charged to Anderson. The Inland Empire (32-62, 9-15) pen was strong as Jordan Piche (2IP), Kevin Grendell (2IP) and Ronnie Muck (1IP) stifled the Storm the rest of the way.

The 66ers chipped away with two runs in the fourth against Storm starter Brett Kennedy (4-6). The Sixers made it 8-3 in the seventh when Wade Wass drilled his second double of the game for a RBI.

Lake Elsinore brought in righty Colby Blueberg, whose father Jim pitched for the San Bernardino Spirit in '88-'89, to finish the game and things got interesting. David Fletcher, who earlier extended his hitting streak to 11 games, singled to open the inning. Taylor Ward fell behind in the count 0-2 and fouled off six pitches before swatting a 1-2 pitch out to left for his third homer of the year and an 8-5 score. Zach Houchins then singled and Wass doubled him home for an 8-6 tally. Wass finished with three doubles and two RBI. A wild pitch moved Wass to third. After back-to-back outs, Roberto Baldoquin hit a grounder to short that was muffed by Javier Guerra for an error to score Wass and make it 8-7. The comeback would end there as Baldoquin was caught trying to steal second with Ryan Sebra at the plate on a bullseye to the bag from Storm catcher Ricardo Valenzuela to end the game.

The series continues Monday at 7:05 pm. The contest can be heard live at 66ers.com and 1570 AM KPRO.