Homers Send Ports To 11-0 Blowout Loss
ADELANTO, Calif. - The High Desert Mavericks scored seven runs on two swings of the bat Tuesday night in Adelanto. In doing so, they sent the Stockton Ports to a fourth straight loss in an 11-0 contest, the sixth shutout loss the Ports have suffered on the season.
High Desert set the tone early when Scott Heineman led off the first inning with a home run to give the Mavericks the initial lead. The Mavericks added to their lead in the second when David Lyon led off with a double and scored two batters later on an RBI groundout by Josh Morgan to make it a 2-0 score.
The Mavericks delivered their biggest blow in the third. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Travis Demeritte hit his league-leading 25th home run of the season and his second homer in as many games, a grand slam to left to make it a 6-0 ballgame.
Ports starter Mike Murray (1-1) pitched into the fourth inning. With two on and two out, Luke Tendler hit a three-run homer to right-center to give the Mavericks a 9-0 advantage and knock Murray from the game. Murray suffered the loss after allowing nine runs on eight hits in 4.2 innings.
Stockton's offense struggled versus High Desert starter Tyler Davis (4-4). Davis allowed just two singles over six scoreless innings as he went on to pick up the win.
Cody Palmquist came on in relief for High Desert in the sixth and gave up back-to-back one-out singles to Jose Brizuela and Seth Brown, but got a strikeout and a groundout to escape trouble.
Kelvin Vasquez pitched two perfect innings to close out the game for the Mavericks.
After 3.1 scoreless innings thrown by Joey Wagman in which he did not allow a hit, Matt Stalcup came on to pitch the eighth and gave up a leadoff double to Juremi Profar, who scored two batters later on an RBI single by Jose Trevino. Two batters later, Trevino scored on a two-out single by Michael De Leon to make it an 11-0 score.
The Ports and Mavericks wrap up their three-game series on Wednesday night in Adelanto. Brett Graves (4-8, 5.50 ERA) makes the start for Stockton, opposed by High Desert right-hander Collin Wiles (2-5, 4.60 ERA). First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. PDT.