Rawhide drop first road game to Grizzlies

In the inaugural game of the Battle of the 559, Visalia fell to Fresno 9-2. Rawhide starter, Austin Pope, takes his first loss of the season after giving up three earned runs in five innings. Grizzlies' starter, Mike Ruff, earned his second win of the season by giving up just 3 hits in five innings.

Fresno scored first in this Bull vs Bear Market series. The Grizzlies had four consecutive hits that gave them the two-run lead and tacked on a third with a sacrifice fly hit by Daniel Montano. Rawhide did not score until the 4th inning. S.P. Chen walked to lead off the inning and Neyfy Castillo singled. Chen scored off the throwing error and Castillo advanced to third base. The next pitch, Ruff threw a wild pitch and Castillo scored. Those would be the only two runs of the game.

Fresno added another six runs to their lead. In the sixth, Cristopher Navarro singled to drive in Drew Romo and Mateo Gil. In the seventh, Colin Simpson singled with bases loaded and extended the Grizzly lead to five. Later that inning, Romo scored off Gil's RBI single to left field. The final Fresno run came in the bottom of the eighth when Navarro scored off Alex Valdez's wild pitch.

Rawhide look to bounce back from their 9-2 lead tomorrow at game two of the six game series. First pitch is at 6:50pm.