Brown Delivers in First Start for 5-2 Ports Win

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Ports (12-16) took game three of the six-game set with San Jose (14-15) with a 5-2 win over the Giants behind five shutout innings from starting pitcher Ryan Brown.

It was the first start for Brown since high school, as he had worked exclusively as a reliever at Oregon State and professionally. He was coming off of his longest outing of the season when he worked 3.2 scoreless innings against Visalia on May 3, so the right hander had been building towards more extended outings.

Stockton again scored first in the series and did so in the first inning for the second-straight game against the Giants. Nate Nankil delivered a two-out RBI single to right this time, and Cole Conn just beat the throw to slide in safely for a 1-0 Ports lead.

Brown would deliver five shutout innings, allowing just one hit and one walk to the Giants top prospect Bryce Eldridge. In the sixth, the Ports would give their starter more run support by taking advantage of the Giants defense with aggressive base running.

Conn and Luke Mann walked to start the inning when Giants starter Ubert Mejias struggled with his control and had to exit due to an injury to his pitching hand. Reliever Cody Tucker came in and got the ground balls he wanted, but made a throwing error on a come backer allowing Conn to score for a 2-0 lead.

A ground out to short off the bat of Darlyn Montero was executed like a normal 6-3 putout, but Nankil drew a throw over to second after going over half way to third base that was a bit offline, allowing Mann to score to make it 3-0. Nelson Beltran would belt a triple (1) to right center to score Nankil and the Ports were up 4-0 in the sixth.

The Giants would get a run in the seventh on an RBI ground out to score Eldridge, and another run in the eighth off a solo home run to cut it to 4-2 going into the ninth. But Casey Yamauchi would reach on an error at first and Cole Conn doubled to put runners at second and third with one out in the final frame. An RBI ground out from Conn would score Yamauchi and Ports would back up by three at 5-2.

Eduardo Rivera entered the game in the ninth, which started with a ball driven out to deep right center off the bat of Eldridge, but Nankil chased it down in the gap and hung on to it in the heel of his glove for out number one. Rivera would retire the next two batters via a strikeout and a pop up to second for his second save of the season in closing out Brown’s first win.

UP NEXT
Game four will be a 7:00 p.m. start on Friday, with 19-year-old Jefferson Jean making his Ports debut against lefty Dylan Carmouche (0-1, 3.43) for the Giants.

Single game tickets, mini plans, and group outings are all on sale for the 2024 season. For more information, call the Ports front office at 209-644-1900 or email at [email protected].