Homer Bush Jr. Makes Lake Elsinore Debut; Storm Fall to Rawhide in Series Opener
LAKE ELSINORE, CA - Game one of a 12-game home stand started on the wrong foot for the Lake Elsinore Storm (48-52, 17-20), as they fell 6-1 against the Visalia Rawhide (39-64, 16-21) at Diamond Stadium. Even though it was the sixth loss in the last seven games for Lake
LAKE ELSINORE, CA - Game one of a 12-game home stand started on the wrong foot for the Lake Elsinore Storm (48-52, 17-20), as they fell 6-1 against the Visalia Rawhide (39-64, 16-21) at Diamond Stadium.
Even though it was the sixth loss in the last seven games for Lake Elsinore, there was a silver lining for Storm fans. Padres 2023 Fourth-Round Pick, Homer Bush Jr., made his Storm debut and showed off the tools that got him selected this summer.
Bush Jr., went one-for-three, earned a walk, and stole a base in the loss. Homer, a 60-grade runner coming out of the draft, according to the MLB Pipeline, had stolen 10 bases in 10 attempts in the Arizona Complex League prior to his promotion to Lake Elsinore.
The speed, however, was not the most impressive part of Bush Jr.’s game. The 21-year-old made two sparkling defensive plays. A sliding catch robbed Rawhide third baseman Kevin Sim of a hit in the 1st inning, and then a diving effort took away extra bases from Riquelmin Cabral in the seventh. Storm right fielder Tyler Robertson made a full-extension grab of his own, completing an impressive defensive night for Lake Elsinore.
Although the defense shined, for the second straight game the offense struggled. After being shut out for the seventh time this season on Sunday, in Modesto, Lake Elsinore was blanked over the first seven innings of today’s contest.
Then, in the bottom of the eighth inning, Lake Elsinore would load the bases with nobody out. A sharply hit ground ball by Tyler Robertson was mishandled by Kevin Sim, allowing Griffin Doersching to score to put the Storm on the board.
For the visiting Rawhide, they cracked the scoreboard in the top of the third inning on a Jansel Luis two-run home run. Visalia would tack on three runs in the top of the sixth inning, on five hits, including back-to-back RBI doubles by Kenny Castillo and Jose Fernandez. The final tally for the Hide came in the eighth inning as Cristofer Torin tripled and then scored on a Kobe Robinson balk.
On the mound, Fernando Sanchez (2-6, 7.46) takes the loss for Lake Elsinore, while Casey Anderson (1-0, 0.00) gets the win in his Rawhide debut. Gustavo Del Pozo picked up his second save of the year for Visalia.
The Storm continue the six-game series on Wednesday at 6:05 p.m. at Diamond Stadium against the Visalia Rawhide. On the mound, Jose Reyes (0-1, 3.55) takes on Ricardo Yan (1-9, 4.62). Television coverage is on MiLB.tv and the Bally Live APP, with radio coverage beginning at 6:00 p.m. on MiLB.com and stormbaseball.com.