Inland Empire Sweeps Lake Elsinore with Wild 13-Inning Win
San Bernardino, CA- The Inland Empire 66ers completed a sweep of the Lake Elsinore Storm in dramatic fashion on Thursday at San Manuel Stadium with a 5-4 walkoff win in the bottom of the 13th inning in a game that took four hours and 47 minutes to complete and witnessed the competitors strand a combined 32 runners on base. The Sixers, who defeated the Storm on Wednesday in Lake Elsinore 4-2 to open the best-of-three series trailed 4-3 entering the bottom of the 13th inning, will now face the Lancaster JetHawks on the road on Saturday for the California League's Southern Division title in a rematch of 2013.
The 66ers trailed 3-1 entering the bottom of the eighth and capitalized on two hit batsmen to eventually tie the game 3-3 after an RBI single from DH Anthony Bemboom and RBI ground out by Sherman Johnson. Bemboom finished the contest three-for-six.
The game remained tied as both bullpens were hearty. The Storm bullpen bent but never broke through 12 frames as the relievers for Lake Elsinore walked ten men and hit two batters from the sixth inning on but allowed just the two runs in eighth all the way through the 12th.
The Sixers pen was nasty as well. Eduard Santos and Mark Sappington each tossed scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth and southpaw Danny Miranda tossed three shutout frames in his playoff debut.
Jake Boyd (1-0) took the ball in the top of the 13th and walked Storm third baseman Gabriel Quintana. After a sac bunt and a walk put two men on with two out, Alberth Martinez lined a base hit to left to give Lake Elsinore, the Southern Divison wild card winner a 4-3 lead. Martinez finished the game three-for-six and a homer shy of the cycle.
Gennison Reyes (0-1) had tossed a scoreless 12th but gave up a one-out single to Dennis Raben in the Sixers' half of the 13th. Angel Rosa then walked as did Cal Towey who followed. Mark Shannon then bounced a ball back to the mound with one out. Reyes' lob to the plate missed its mark and Raben scored on a throwing error to tie the game. Zach Wright batted next and hit a grounder to the left side of the infield. It was stopped on a brilliant diving grab by third baseman Gabriel Quintana however his throw (from the seat of his pants) home was not in time and Angel Rosa scored the winning run.