Inland Empire Loses Tight One at San Jose 4-3

San Jose, CA- The Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino dropped its second straight game in a six-game set as the Giants took Wednesday’s day-game 4-3. The Sixers out-hit the Giants (48-26) 10-8 but San Jose got solo homers from Jimmy Glowenke (5th) and Marco Luciano (league-best 17th) and held the Sixers to 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

Inland Empire (38-35) took a 1-0 lead in the third against San Jose starter Wil Jensen (5-1) when Elijah Greene doubled and moved to third on Carlos Reina’s single. Greene came home on a fielder’s choice RBI by Jeremy Arocho. The Giants answered with two in the bottom of the inning against IE starter Coleman Crow (3-1) on a RBI singled from Luis Matos and RBI double from Jairo Pomares. Inland Empire tied the game in the fourth when Braxton Martinez singled and one out later Jose Guzman singled him to second and extended his hit-streak to a 12-games, the best mark by a 66er in 2021. With Martinez at second, Paxton Wallace singled to left to tie the game at 2-2. The base hit was the first in the professional career of Wallace, who joined the club on Wednesday after being signed by the Angels as a free-agent from Wichita State. The Giants immediately re-captured the lead in the home half of the fourth on Glowenke’s solo homer. The Giants tacked on another run against Crow in the fifth on Luciano’s long-ball making it 4-3. The Sixers were able to trim the lead to one when Carlos Reina doubled to left against righty Ivan Armstrong for his second hit of the game. With two outs in the inning D’Shawn Knowles singled to center for a RBI. Inland Empire got a one out single in the ninth from Elijah Greene against reliever Clay Helvey (SV, 8) but the righty coaxed an game-ending double-play off the bat of Reina. Justin Courtney and Dakota Donovan combined for three scoreless innings out of the pen for Inland Empire.

The series continues Thursday at 6:30 pm. The contest can be heard live on 66ers.com.