Almonte Shuts Down Lancaster as Rawhide Win

MODESTO, CA - Jose Almonte kept the best offense in the California League at bay tonight as he dealt six shutout innings against the Lancaster JetHawks to pick up his seventh win of the season as Visalia took the first game of the series, 6-2.

Almonte (W, 7-7) never retired Lancaster (50-44/12-12) in order, but scattered five hits, walked two, and hit two batters while weaving effectively in and out of traffic to keep the JetHawks off the board. He struck out four batters in the first two innings and six over the course of the outing to increase his league-leading and career-best total to 122. It was Almonte's second consecutive quality start after he didn't record one for the entire month of June.
Keegan Long allowed an unearned run in the seventh inning, pitching a total of two frames, and Austin Mason gave up a run in the ninth.
Visalia (47-47/11-13) once again gave their starter early support, scoring a run in the first inning on a fielding error by shortstop Wilson Soriano and then they scored another in the fourth when Austin Byler doubled and Henry Castillo drove him home with a single to make it 2-0.
The Rawhide broke it open against Ty Culbreth (L, 2-1) in the fifth inning, when they sent eight men to the plate and scored four runs on a Marty Herum sacrifice fly, another Byler double that rang off of the bottom of the right-field wall, and a Matt McPhearson two-run single that grazed the glove of a leaping Garrett Hampson behind the bag at second.
Byler finished with two doubles, giving him four extra-base hits in the past two games, while Jason Morozowski added a three-hit night including a double off of the wall in right field. Daniel Lockhart and Sergio Alcántara put together two-hit performances, with Lockhart hitting the fourth double of the night for Visalia in the eighth inning.
Visalia has won four straight games for the first time in the second half. With the win, the Rawhide have leapt into second place in both the second-half and overall standings in the Cal League North Division.
The Rawhide will continue the series against Lancaster tomorrow morning. The game will feature Visalia RHP Bo Takahashi (5-4, 3.68) and Lancaster RHP Peter Lambert (8-7, 3.95) with first pitch at 11 AM. Tickets are still available on rawhidebaseball.com.