Ports Lack Offense In Home Finale

STOCKTON, Calif. - The Stockton Ports bats struggled to come alive in their regular season home finale on Monday night at Banner Island Ballpark. The Ports mustered just three hits as they dropped the final game of their four-game set to the Visalia Rawhide by a final of 3-1.

Visalia scored its first run in the top of the first. Kevin Medrano singled to open the ballgame and scored on a one-out single by David Peralta off Ports starter Raul Alcantara (5-4).

Stockton saw its best chance for a big inning fall by the wayside in the first. With one out, Visalia starter Andrew Barbosa (10-9) issued three straight walks to load the bases. Antonio Lamas came up and hit into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play to end the Stockton threat.

The Rawhide added to their lead in the third. Visalia loaded the bases with nobody out and Alcantara induced a 6-4-3 double-play off the bat of Peralta that enabled a run to score, making it a 2-0 ballgame. Beginning with that double-play, Alcantara retired 11 in a row and 14 of his final 15 hitters to end his outing. The right-hander suffered the loss, going seven innings and allowing two runs on six hits while striking out three.

Barbosa pitched around a jam in the third with runners at second and third and two outs. Barbosa retired nine of his final 11 batters en route to picking up the win, going six shutout innings and allowing two hits while walking five and striking out seven.

David Mota took over for the Ports in the eighth and gave up a leadoff single to Medrano, who scored two batters later on an RBI single from Jake Lamb to extend the Rawhide lead to 3-0. It was the only run allowed by Mota in two innings of work.

Seth Simmons pitched a scoreless seventh for the Rawhide while Kaleb Fleck tossed a scoreless eighth. R.J. Hively (SV, 12) came on to pitch the ninth and gave up a leadoff triple to Antonio Lamas. After Hively got back-to-back strikeouts of B.A. Vollmuth and Rashun Dixon, he uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Lamas to score to break up the shutout. Hively, though, would strike out Phil Pohl to end the ballgame.

After dropping three of four to Visalia and going 38-32 at home in 2013, the Ports embark on a seven-game road trip to close out the season, beginning with a three-game series in Bakersfield on Tuesday. Josh Bowman (5-6. 6.19 ERA) makes the start for the Ports, opposed by Blaze right-hander Jake Johnson (6-5, 5.21 ERA). First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. PDT.