Ports Out-Hit Storm But Succumb to Late Rally

LAKE ELSINORE, Ca. – The Ports collected 12 hits but succumbed to three two-run innings for the Storm as Stockton fell 8-3 on Wednesday night at The Diamond in Lake Elsinore, evening the two teams’ six-game series at one game apiece.

The Storm (53-39) got out to the early lead on Wednesday night, scoring once in the bottom of the third and once in the fourth against Ports’ starter James Gonzalez. In the third, Nerwilian Cedeño lined a single to left field to score Wyatt Hoffman, who doubled, from second base to make it 1-0 Lake Elsinore. In the fourth, the Storm doubled their lead on back-to-back two-out hits. After Carlos Luis doubled to left-center, Justin Farmer drove him in with a single to increase the Storm advantage to 2-0.

With three straight two-out hits in the top of the sixth, the Ports (33-59) got on the board and cut the Lake Elsinore lead in half. Mariano Ricciardi singled up the middle to extend his hitting streak to seven and moved to second on a broken-bat single to right field by Ramon Martinez. Shane McGuire then singled through the right to score Ricciardi from second base to trim the Storm lead to 2-1.

After Lake Elsinore extended its lead to 4-1 on a two-run homer by James Wood in the bottom of the sixth, the Ports trimmed fought back with another tally in the top of the seventh on a solo home run to left field by T.J. Schofield-Sam. Danny Bautista followed with a double and Nick Brueser walked, but Storm reliever Keegan Collett struck out Jalen Greer and Ricciardi to end the threat with the tying run on third base.

Once again, the Storm responded with a two-run frame in the bottom of the seventh against Stockton reliever Luke Anderson on an RBI double by Wyatt Hoffman and double steal of second and home by Charlis Aquino and Hoffman, respectively, to give Storm a 6-2 lead.

After the Ports cut the Lake Elsinore advantage to 6-3 on an RBI single by Jhoan Paulino in the top of the eighth, the Storm again answered with two runs in the bottom of the eighth off Ports’ reliever Ed Baram on a Justin Farmer RBI triple and Jared Alvarez-Lopez sacrifice fly to make it 8-3.

The Ports put runners on first and second with two outs in the ninth, but McGuire struck out to end the ballgame.

Lake Elsinore lefty Jesus Gonzalez (5-4) got the win allowing just two runs while scattering nine hits over 6.1 innings. James Gonzalez (0-5) took the loss for the Ports surrendering four runs on six hits over five innings.

The Ports will look to take the edge in game three of their six-game series with the Storm on Thursday night at The Diamond in Lake Elsinore with first pitch at 7:05 pm.