Storm Run Wild to Take Game One Against Rawhide Presented by The Valley News
On the third pitch of the game, starting pitcher for the Lake Elsinore Storm Isaiah Lowe took a pitch off of his forearm for a leadoff single. After a visit from the athletic trainer, Lowe ground through a lengthy top of the first inning. After a walk, he struck out
On the third pitch of the game, starting pitcher for the Lake Elsinore Storm Isaiah Lowe took a pitch off of his forearm for a leadoff single. After a visit from the athletic trainer, Lowe ground through a lengthy top of the first inning. After a walk, he struck out Ruben Santana, Anderson Rojas ground out, allowed another walk, and finally, struck out the 71st prospect in baseball, Druw Jones.
This led to an even longer bottom of the first inning for the Storm. In a nearly 40-minute first inning, the entire lineup got a chance as Romeo Sanabria, Rosman Verdugo, and Carlos Rodriguez brought in FOUR combined runs. Six men would get on the base of the 20 who did so on the day. Sanabria's singular RBI would be one of his four tonight including a Little League home run where the Rawhide lost a high fly ball in the lights.
The Rawhide would immediately respond to the four-run first inning in the top of the 2nd inning. Lowe, pitching solely as an opener tonight, would be replaced by Breck Eichelberger. Eichelberger would get the first two outs in seven pitches, however, struggled to get the final out of the frame. Three consecutive walks would load the bases for Ruben Santana who had struck out in his first at bat of the day. This time, he would find a gap through the right side, scoring two runs. A wild pitch would give the Rawhide their third run of the game before a groundout finally ended the frame.
By this point in the ball game, the first the first inning and a half took well over an hour and fifteen minutes. The next three frames would be played in half the time before the scoring continued in the bottom of the fifth with Sanabria's inside-the-park home run.
The Storm would then score six runs compared to the Rawhide's two over the same span. The final two runs would be due to the chaos of Dillon Head's incredible speed which was on display earlier in the game with a catch that was over the left shoulder like a wide receiver on a fade route. In the bottom of the seventh, a stolen base would lead to a wild throw from the catcher to second, allowing a run to score and for him to advance to third. The next batter would ground out to third, usually enough to deter the runner from taking home, but after the ball left the third baseman's hand, Dillon headed home and slid in for the eleventh run of the game.
The Lake Elsinore Storm have now scored 11, 7, 7, and 11 runs in their first four games played in Lake Elsinore. They have the third-highest OPS and second-best OBP in all of Single-A. They will play against Visalia again tomorrow at the same time and place for Wildlife Wednesday.