Storm fail to snap early lead by Mavs, fall 8-3
Cameron Hobson took the mound for the Mavericks and retired the first six of seven Storm to start the game off. The lone hit came with two-outs in the first when Tommy Medica hit a triple to center field for his fourth of the season.
Medica went 2-for-4 in the game and remains third in the league in hitting with a .333 batting average and tops the league with a .415 on-base percentage.
High Desert jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second with a pair of doubles by Steven Proscia and John Hicks. Proscia's double was hit to left field to led off the inning. Hicks drove in Proscia, hitting his 30th double of he season to left field and would score himself on a single hit to center field by Gabriel Noriega.
The Storm would cut the lead in half in the top of the third when Luis Domoromo scored from third on an infield ground out.
Domoromo went 2-for-4 on the night scoring a run and driving in an RBI for the Storm.
The Mavs collected two more runs in the third that started with a James Jones walk. He would advance to scoring position on a balk and score the third run for High Desert on an infield single by Leon Landry. Landry would steal his 26th base and score another run for the Mavs on a sacrifice fly to center field for a 4-1 lead.
The Storm would again come with in one in the fourth on consecutive singles. Infielder Justin Miller would reach base on a single to center field to put a runner on base. After a quick out, Donovan Tate, Domoromo, Jeremy Rodriguez and Rico Noel would hit consecutive singles driving in Miller and Tate before hitting into the inning ending double play down just 4-3.
Storm starter Matt Lollis and Hobson both went six innings and finished the final two innings scoreless, keeping the score tight.
In the bottom of the seventh, the home team came up big once again the series. After James Jones scored on another Landry single, it was back-to-back doubles that distanced the Mavs from the Storm for the eventual victory. With two on and two outs Dennis Raben hit his 14th double on a ball to center field scoring both runners for a 7-3 lead. Proscia hit his second double of the game, going 3-for-3 at the plate scoring Raben for the final run of the game.
Yefri Carvajal came in in the eighth to relieve Mark Pope and was able to retire three out of the four batters he faced allowing no runs and no hits.
The Storm and the Mavs close out the four-game series tomorrow before the Storm travel to Lancaster to face the JetHawks in a critical four-game series to remain in the hunt for the playoffs.