Rancho Cucamonga, CA- The Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino fell 7-3 on Monday at LoanMart Field to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes sending the Sixers to the club's sixth consecutive defeat, matching a season worst. Inland Empire (37-45, 4-8) fell to 5-12 against the Quakes (45-37, 10-2) who won their
Rancho Cucamonga, CA- The Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino fell 7-3 on Monday at LoanMart Field to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes sending the Sixers to the club's sixth consecutive defeat, matching a season worst. Inland Empire (37-45, 4-8) fell to 5-12 against the Quakes (45-37, 10-2) who won their seventh straight game and have an opportunity for a five-game sweep of the Sixers in the series finale on Tuesday.
The Quakes took a lead in the first against Sixers starter Nate Bertness (1-7) when Gavin Lux opened the inning with a triple to right field. Omar Estevez' sac fly brought him home. Inland Empire answered against Dustin May (4-3) in the top of the second when Connor Justus smoked May's first pitch of the frame out to left for the IE shortstop's first 2018 round-tripper. May would not allow another run as he smothered the Sixers allowing just the one run on four hits with no walks and seven Ks and matched a career-best 8.0 IP. The Quakes took a lead in the fourth when Jeren Kendall smacked a two-run homer out to right field for a 3-1 advantage against Bertness. Kendall struck again in the sixth as with another two-run bomb against IE reliever Mike Kaelin as part of a four-run outburst and a 7-1 advantage. Kendall now has nine homers on the campaign, four against the Sixers. Inland Empire made some noise in the ninth as Jefry Marte (0-for-3), in his fourth game of an injury rehab assignment for the Angels, drew a walk against reliever Ryan Mosely. Jo Adell then drilled a double off the wall in center moving Marte to third and extending his own hit streak to 13-games. Brandon Marsh followed with a two-run double to left making it 7-3. The Sixers got no closer as Quakes righty Nolan Long came in and collected a strikeout and a flyout off the bat of Jordan Zimmerman to end the game. Zimmerman, who earlier in the day was named California League Player of the Week, went hitless to lose his hit-streak at 11-games.
The series concludes Tuesday at 7:05 pm. The contest can be heard live at 66ers.com.
