Rizzo's Five Hits and Scheiner's Six RBIs Lead to 9-3 Win

VISALIA, CA. - A big offensive night helped the Modesto Nuts end a four-game road losing streak with a 9-3 win over the Visalia Rawhide on Saturday night at Recreation Park.
With the Nuts (59-72; 29-32) winning and the Giants defeating the Ports, the Nuts and Ports and tied 0.5 GB of the Giants for the final playoff spot with nine games to go.
Julio Rodriguez beat out a groundball to second to start the sixth inning. Joe Rizzo followed with his third of five hits on the night. Jake Scheiner put the Nuts on the board first when he drilled a three-run homer over the left-field bullpen. Those were the only runs that Rawhide (80-47; 36-25) starter Bryan Valdez (L, 2-5) allowed in six innings of work while striking out five batters.
Penn Murfee started the game for the Nuts and tossed four scoreless innings working around four hits with four strikeouts.
Matthew Willrodt (W, 2-1) followed him and allowed just two runs over three innings out of the bullpen. Nick Duron (S, 2/3) tossed the last two frames with a pair of strikeouts to even up the four-game series.
Jack Larsen recorded three hits including a two-run homer in the ninth. Scheiner drove home six runs in the game.
The Nuts and Rawhide meet in the third of four games in Visalia on Sunday night at 6:00 p.m. First pitch is at 6:00 p.m. Coverage on ModestoNuts.com will start at 5:50 p.m. Listen live online on your phone, tablet or PC by clicking HERE.