Ninth Inning Rally Nets Ports 4-3 Win
LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. - For the first time this season, the Stockton Ports won a ballgame when trailing after the eighth inning on Tuesday night at The Diamond. The Ports scored four runs on only one hit in the ninth as they came from behind for a 4-3 win over the Lake Elsinore Storm, their fourth straight victory and fifth win in the last six games.
In a game that began as a pitcher's duel, the Storm had Cory Luebke pitch the first inning on a Major League rehab assignment. Luebke set the side down in order and recorded a strikeout.
Former A's farmhand Ronald Herrera followed Luebke into the game to start the second inning and was nearly flawless. Herrera allowed a two-out single to B.J. Boyd in the third, the only hit he surrendered until a yielded a two-out single to Tyler Marincov in the seventh on which Matt Chapman was thrown out trying to score on a play at the plate.
Herrera would receive a no-decision, going seven scoreless innings and allowing three hits while striking out two.
Ports starter Joel Seddon was matching Herrera's performance with a dominant one of his own. Seddon allowed just one hit over the first five innings and pitched around a pair of errors. In the sixth, Seddon gave up a leadoff double to Donavan Tate and then a single to Auston Bousfield to put runners at the corners. Fernando Perez followed with an RBI single to left to give the Storm a 1-0 lead. Lake Elsinore added a second run on a two-out RBI single by Nick Schulz to make it a 2-0 ballgame.
Seddon received a no-decision after going six innings and allowing two runs on five hits while striking out three.
The Storm added a third run in the seventh off Ports reliever Sam Roberts. With one out, Mitch Morales singled and went on to score two batters later on a single by Bousfield to make it a 3-0 contest. It was the only run allowed by Roberts who was lifted in the eighth with two on and two out. Matt Stalcup (1-0), who entered the game with runners at first and second and two out in the eighth, got Yale Rosen to ground out to end the inning.
Leading 3-0 heading to the top of the ninth, the Storm turned to Christopher Nunn out of the bullpen. Nunn would walk the first three batters of the inning to load the bases with nobody out, at which point Eric Yardley (1-3) was summoned to try for the save. Yardley would hit John Nogowski to start his outing which brought in the first Stockton run of the night. With the bases still loaded and nobody out, Chapman hit a sac-fly to deep center that allowed Brett Vertigan to score and Melvin Mercedes to tag and advance to third. Marincov came up next and hit a slow ground ball to third on which the third baseman Gabriel Quintana tried to send it around the horn for a potential game-ending double-play. Perez, the second baseman, dropped the ball on the transfer to his throwing hand, ensuring Marincov would be safe at first and Mercedes safe at home after scoring the tying run. Marincov went on to steal second and then scored the go-ahead run on an RBI single by Branden Cogswell, the only hit of the inning, to make it a 4-3 ballgame.
Yardley suffered the loss as the go-ahead run was charged to his ledger. Nunn was charged with the first three runs of the inning and his second blown save of the season.
Brendan McCurry (SV, 10) came on to pitch the bottom of the ninth and set the side down in order to notch his 10th save of the season. Stalcup, who recorded the final out of the eighth, was credited with the victory.
The Ports will try for their first series sweep of the season when they play the final game of their road trip on Wednesday night at The Diamond. Dillon Overton (2-3, 4.03 ERA) will make the start for the Ports, opposed by Storm right-hander Rafael De Paula (4-4, 4.20 ERA). First pitch is set for 6 p.m. PDT.