Mavs storm back to beat Lake Elsinore

ADELANTO -- After an 18-run, 24-hit night in their previous game against the Lake Elsinore Storm, the High Desert Mavericks offense was silent for the first seven innings Friday night.

But once Storm starter Zach Eflin was taken out, the Mavs pulled off a major comeback. They scored four runs in the eighth then trailing by one in the ninth, Burt Reynolds blasted a Trevor Gott pitch out of the park to give the Mavericks a 10-9 walk-off win over Lake Elsinore on Friday night.  

"(Eflin) was throwing pretty good, he was spotting up and he had good movement on his fastball," said Reynolds, who is the cousin of Seattle Mariners second baseman and former New York Yankees Robinson Cano. "Once we got (him) out ... everybody pretty much said lets jump on a fastball and get some quality at bats. That's all it took." 

High Desert had climbed to within 8-6 after eight innings. But in the top of the ninth, the Storm scored an insurance run off two hits and an error. 

Then the Mavericks rallied back for the victory. 

"You never know in this ballpark," High Desert manager Eddie Menchaca said. "If you elevate the fastball anything can happen here. I think Eflin was down in the zone and he did a nice job. Then their bullpen came in, they left some pitches up and we took advantage of it. 

"Good for Burt, he got a good pitch to hit and he didn't miss it."     

Down 9-6 in the ninth, Jordy Lara led off with a single. Lake Elsinore third baseman Duanel Jones waited on a Jabari Henry's groundball then threw the ball into right field putting runners at second and third. Steve Baron hit a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 9-7 and Patrick Brady followed with an RBI single. 

That brought up Reynolds who would provide the late-game heroics. He was sitting fastball and that's what he got from Gott. The Mavericks designated hitter hammered the pitch over the wall in left-center for a walk-off home run and sending the sell-out crowd into a frenzy. 

"It's never over, you have to play all 27 outs," Reynolds said. "You have grind it out to that last hitter. That was my third time facing him and it was all fastballs. He has a hard fastball and once I saw it, I knew I had to attack it. 

"First pitch, I threw my hands out and I got it. It felt good. It felt amazing."   

Trailing 8-2 in the bottom of the eighth, Baron led off with a single off Storm reliever Matt Shepherd. Brady followed with a two-run blast over the left-center field wall. One out later, Travis Witherspoon singled to left and after a second out, D.J. Peterson clubbed his team-leading 15th home run over the left-field wall. 

That was it for Shepherd as Lake Elsinore brought in Gott to close out the game. He got the final out of the inning but the Mavs rallied in the ninth to prevent him from getting his 17th save. 

The main culprit in keeping the Mavs off the scoreboard much of the night was Eflin. The right-hander went seven strong innings. He allowed only two runs on four hits while striking out six.

The Mavericks are now 34-35 with one game left in the first half of the California League season. 

Menchaca said they're looking to close it out with a .500 record and momentum heading into the second half of the season.