Swanda Suffocates Ports, Sixers Blast Three Homers

August 26, 2021

Stockton, CA- The Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino received a sublime performance out the bullpen from righty John Swanda and tagged three homers in a 3-1 win on Wednesday night at Banner Island Ballpark. The 66ers duo of John Swanda and starter Brett Kerry combined to allow just an

Inland Empire (49-49) took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Bryce Teodosio tagged a solo homer to right against Ports’ lefty Colton Johnson (0-1); it was Teodosio’s first homer with Inland Empire. Two batters later Myles Emmerson crushed a 427’ shot out to left field for his first dinger as a professional and gave the Sixers a 2-0 advantage. Emmerson had one homer in his collegiate career at Cal Poly. Sixers’ starter Brett Kerry went 2.2 innings of dominant work allowing just a leadoff double in the second to Joshwan Wright. Kerry stranded the runner on base as the righty did not surrender a run nor a walk and struck out four in his outing; he was relieved in the third by Swanda in the third with two outs. Swanda got out of the third with a ground out. The Des Moines, IA native walked Zack Gelof to open the third and Gelof stole second base. TJ Schofield-Sam then hit a chopper to Inland Empire shortstop Jose Guzman who misplayed the ball for an error allowing an unearned run to score and cut the lead to 2-1. Swanda (6-5) then tightened the tourniquet on the Ports’ offense as he set down the next 18 batters down in order including eight via the strikeout. He went 6.1 no-hit innings allowing just the unearned run on the one walk stymieing the Ports on 74 pitches. Paxton Wallace tagged a solo shot for the Sixers in the sixth for their third run of the game. Wallace has four homers in 20 professional games and has homered in each of the first two games of the six-game set at Stockton; he also added a pair of singles for his first three-hit game of his career.

The series continues Thursday at 7:05pm. The contest can be heard live on 66ers.com.