Storm Win in Walk-off Against Visalia Rawhide Presented by The Valley News
The Lake Elsinore Storm had another whirlwind night of baseball at The LE Diamond. The Storm would endure a long first inning in a game that once again surpassed the three-hour mark. Starter Will Varmette would be tonight's starter and as the pitchers before him, would run into trouble early.
The Lake Elsinore Storm had another whirlwind night of baseball at The LE Diamond.
The Storm would endure a long first inning in a game that once again surpassed the three-hour mark. Starter Will Varmette would be tonight's starter and as the pitchers before him, would run into trouble early. Three walks and two singles would bring 3 men home before the Storm even had a chance to bat.
Luckily, as the Storm have proved many times in this young season, they care not for an opposing team gaining a significant advantage. In the bottom of the same inning that they gave up three runs in, the Storm would put three on the board themselves. After loading the bases, Braedon Karpathios would come to the plate with two outs and knock a double into left-center field.
Unfortunately, Varmette's night would not improve with this fresh start. He would allow two more runs to score, both on bases-loaded walks. This would be enough for him to be pulled from the game in favor of Harry Gustin who got a groundout on his first pitch to limit the damage to two runs in the top of the second.
Once again, the Storm would answer the call. They would score a run on a Jay Beshears single who also walked, increasing his league-leading walk number to 16 and holding his OPS well over 1.000. Before this run scored, Dillon Head, tonight's hero, would hit a single that nearly scored Jose Sanabria. Unfortunately, a perfect throw saw him gunned down at the plate.
The Rawhide would score once more and the Storm would score once in the fifth and again in the 6th to tie up the game at 6 runs apiece. Luis German and Thomas Balboni Jr. would hold the tie in place, each going 2 innings while refusing to allow a run to score. They would fan five batters in their four innings and not give up a single base hit.
This set-up a potential walk-off for the Storm in the bottom of the ninth. Karpathios would start things off with a walk before Colton Vincent and Wyatt Hoffman recorded the first two outs of the frame. Jose Sanabria and Ryan Wilson would both take walks on nine combined pitches. This set the table for the top prospect on the 2024 Storm to have a chance at glory. In an at bat that began with a strike and a foul ball, Head spit on two pitches to even the count at 2-2.
After just missing a ball that fouled off to the left, the next pitch Dillon head swatted into shallow left field and left the game with his second career walk-off in Lake Elsinore and the first of the 2024 season.
Tomorrow night, the Storm play the Rawhide again where Lake Elsinore will commemorate two former Storm greats. Wade LeBlanc and Andrés Pagán will be the first inductees into the Storm Hall of Fame with a pre-game ceremony beginning at 6:05 PM.