LANCASTER, CA - Tommy Eveld has been the pure definition of "lock-down" for Visalia in the second half, and Shelley Duncan called upon him to preserve the 4-4 tie in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Lancaster and Visalia bullpens had been answering each other with scoreless inning after
LANCASTER, CA - Tommy Eveld has been the pure definition of "lock-down" for Visalia in the second half, and Shelley Duncan called upon him to preserve the 4-4 tie in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Lancaster and Visalia bullpens had been answering each other with scoreless inning after scoreless inning, and Eveld was trying to send the game to extras.
Eveld (L, 0-2) would only face three batters as Chris Rabago singled on the second pitch of Eveld's outing and then moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Robbie Perkins. Eveld and Scott Burcham dueled for five pitches before Burcham smashed a ground-ball single down the third-base line past the glove of Henry Castillo to score Rabago and end the game.
It was the first walk-off win for Lancaster (64-53/26-21) since a May 28 victory against Inland Empire, and the first walk-off loss for Visalia (59-58/23-24) since they fell in extra innings to Modesto on June 28.
The Rawhide have now lost three straight games, have fallen in eight of their past 12 contests, and have been swept in two of their past three series. In between the two sweeps, Visalia swept Stockton in a four-game series at home.
The Rawhide had a great chance to take the lead in the seventh inning when they loaded the bases with one out against Jesus Tinoco and had the top of the order coming up. Logan Cozart came on in relief and got out of the jam unscathed by striking out Jason Morozowski and inducing a groundout from Mark Karaviotis. Cozart worked around a two-out Matt Jones single in the eighth and Carlos Polanco (W, 4-5) set the Rawhide down in order in the ninth to set up the walk-off.
The Visalia runs all came in the second inning as they sent seven men to the plate and, thanks to a sacrifice fly by Henry Castillo, a Fernery Ozuna RBI single, and a two-run home run form Jorge Flores, took a 4-0 lead.
Lancaster answered back with three runs in the third off of Sam Lewis. The JetHawks got three hits in the frame and benefitted from two-throwing errors by the Rawhide to narrow the deficit to 4-3. Then, with two outs in the fifth, Sam Hilliard, who had been hitless in the series, hit a game-tying solo homer to center. It ended up as his only hit of the series, but Hilliard made it count.
Visalia will continue the road trip tomorrow by beginning a three-game series against the Stockton Ports. First pitch is at 7:10 PM and will feature Arizona Diamondbacks 27th-ranked prospect RHP Jose Almonte (8-8, 3.70) for Visalia and a still to-be-announced pitcher for Stockton. The live radio broadcast can be heard on rawhidebaseball.com
