Lake Elsinore, CA- The Lake Elsinore Storm rolled over the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino on Tuesday at The Diamond 13-2 led by 2B Chris Baker's two-homer performance at the plate and Pedro Avila's seven shutout innings on the mound. The decision moved the Sixers and Storm even at
Lake Elsinore, CA- The Lake Elsinore Storm rolled over the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino on Tuesday at The Diamond 13-2 led by 2B Chris Baker's two-homer performance at the plate and Pedro Avila's seven shutout innings on the mound. The decision moved the Sixers and Storm even at 4-4 in the season series.
Baker got it going in the second with one man on and two outs against Sixers' starter Austin Robichaux (1-2) drilling a 2-2 pitch over the wall down the left field line for a 2-0 lead. It was Baker's first homer of the year. The Storm (22-24) blew the game open in the middle innings scoring five time in the fifth highlighted by Javier Guerra's 3-run triple that made it 7-0. In the sixth the Storm poured it on scoring six more runs capped by Bakers second dinger of the night, a three-run shot making it 13-0. Baker finished 2-for-5 with the pair of round-trippers and five RBI. Robichaux was charged with four runs allowed in 4.1 innings and reliever Jeremy Rhoades bore the brunt of the onslaught allowing nine earned runs in 1.1 IP.
Meanwhile the 20-year-old Avila cruised for his best outing of the season and his first Cal League win improving to 1-3. His seven innings were his longest outing of the year and he struck out eight batters without walking a man and allowing just four singles. The Sixers did get on the board in the eight versus reliever Zech Lemond as Taylor Ward delivered an RBI double and Matt Thaiss collected a RBI single. Thaiss and Jake Yacinch each had two hits in the game for the 66ers (23-23).
Auston Bousfield and Josh Naylor turned in three-hit performances at the plate for Lake Elsinore while Ruddy Giron, Guerra and had two hits apiece in addition to Baker's pair of homers. Naylor is now 13-for-27 against the 66ers.
The series continues Wednesday at 6:00 pm. The contest can be heard live at 66ers.com.
