San Bernardino, CA- Inland Empire (37-50, 6-11) dropped the opening game of the series to the Visalia Rawhide (41-45, 11-6) 9-2 as the 66ers were in the midst of an offensive power outage until the final frame due to a strong pitching performance by Rawhide starter, and former Cal Baptist ace, Taylor Siemens.
The 66ers offense was only able to muster six hits off of Siemens who was roughed up by Inland Empire in his previous start. Siemens threw eight shutout innings and struck out six to earn the win to improve to 1-2. 66ers starter Ryan Crowley was roughed up for eleven hits and six earned runs to be charged with the loss. Crowley falls to 1-7. 66ers reliever Tyler Kehrer settled down a rattled 66ers pitching as he pitched a scoreless 9th to stall the hot-hitting Rawhide offense.
66ers left fielder Brennan Gowens drove in the only runs of the game for Inland Empire on a fielder's choice off of Rawhide reliever Kyle Winkler. Gowens replaced starting left fielder Ryan Jones as Jones crashed into the left field fence and was taken out of the game. Randal Grichuk played his 100th game as a 66er today and he went 1-for-4 on the occasion.
The 66ers continue their series with the Visalia Rawhide tomorrow at 6:05 pm. The game can be heard on the home of 66ers baseball KCAA 1050 AM beginning with the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Pre-Game show at 5:55. For information on 66ers tickets or to schedule your next fun filled group outing, contact the 66ers front office at (909)888-9922, or check out the website 66ers.com.