Home Run Barrage Not Enough for Toros

VISALIA, CA - Los Toros de Visalia hit a season-high four homers as a team, but in a game that saw three ties and six lead changes, it was a ninth-inning blast from Rancho Cucamonga's Omar Estevez that led the Quakes to a 10-7 win.

Trailing 6-4 in the seventh, Marcus Wilson and Ramon Hernandez highlighted a triumphant frame by clubbing back-to-back homers, with Wilson's shot plating Adam Walton, to put Visalia (18-13) back on top 7-6.
Los Toros turned the lead over to the back end of their bullpen, which has been one of the top units in the league. But Kevin Ginkel allowed his first home run of the season and his first run since April 16 when Cody Thomas hit a game-tying, opposite field solo shot in the eighth.
Josh Taylor (L, 0-2) entered with a 7-7 tie to begin the ninth, but allowed a leadoff single and then bobbled a grounder hit back to the mound, which put two on with nobody out. He struck out Jeren Kendall before Estevez, who had one hit in his prior thirteen at bats in the series, hit a wall-scraping homer into the Visalia bullpen down the left field line.
Rancho Cucamonga (13-17) scored 10 runs on 15 hits, and were held without a baserunner just once: in a perfect sixth inning by Miguel Aguilar.
Visalia starter Connor Grey left after five innings with a 4-3 lead; only two of the runs against him were earned. But Aguilar and Austin Mason combined to allow the Quakes to plate three runs in the top of the seventh on a two-run single by Connor Wong and a RBI base hit by Kendall to squander the lead.
Quakes starter Dean Kremer retired the first eight hitters he faced before surrendering a solo homer to Adam Walton in the third. Drew Ellis plated a pair with a double in the fourth and Camden Duzenack blasted his second shot of the season with one out in the fifth.
Los Toros committed a season-high four errors on the game that resulted in two unearned runs being scored: one to Grey's record and another to Taylor's. Both teams also struck out 14 times, a season-high for Visalia. Los Toros fell in a series at home for the second time this year, and have now lost each of their last two rubber matches in a three-game series.
Visalia will welcome Stockton to Rawhide Ballpark for a three-game set starting on Tuesday, May 8. The Rawhide will send RHP Bo Takahashi (3-1, 2.61) to the mound against Stockton RHP Brian Howard. First pitch is at 6 PM on Tuesday and tickets are still available on rawhidebaseball.com.