Missed Opportunities Haunt Rawhide

VISALIA, CA - The Rawhide struck in the bottom of the first inning, but a pair of unearned runs and a bases-loaded walk helped key a comeback for Inland Empire as the 66ers defeated the Rawhide, 4-1.

Visalia (49-50/12-17) had chances to score early on, but they failed to cash in. The Rawhide had Wilson at second base with two outs in the third and loaded the bases with one out in the fourth. Visalia brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth on singles by Renae Martinez and Ramon Hernandez, but they once again came up empty.
Inland Empire (48-51/15-14) tied the game at one in the fourth when luck landed in the 66ers court. Connor Justus led off with a walk against Matt Peacock and Jordan Zimmerman reached on an error on a low line drive to left that handcuffed Jason Morozowski.
Peacock then induced a pair of tailor-made double play balls, but Franklin Torres and Jonah Todd both beat out the back end of the fielder's choices. Todd's groundout brought home Justus to tie the game.
The 66ers took the lead in the sixth after Peacock left with runners on first and third and two outs. Miguel Aguilar entered and walked DJ Jenkins to load the bases. Then he went full to Jo Adell before walking the Angels top prospect to score David MacKinnon and give the 66ers a 2-1 lead.
MacKinnon's run was charged to Peacock (L, 3-1), who tossed 5.2 strong innings and worked in and out of trouble. He gave up two runs, one earned, on seven hits while walking a pair and striking out five.
Matt Brill picked up for Aguilar in the eighth and tossed a scoreless frame before surrendering a pair of runs, only one of which was earned, in the ninth on an RBI double by Justus and a sacrifice fly from Todd.
Mike Kaelin (SV, 2) pitched the final three innings for the 66ers and struck out four Rawhide batters to pick up a nine-out save.
Marcus Wilson doubled and scored a run as part of a two hit night and Hernandez and Smith both put up a pair of singles for the Rawhide. Drew Ellis picked up the lone RBI for Visalia with a line-drive single in the first.
Renae Martinez's ninth-inning single extended his current hitting streak to nine games, which is tied with Adam Walton for the second-longest hitting streak on the Rawhide this year.
Visalia has now fallen in four straight series, a span where they've won just four of 17 games.
The Rawhide welcome Lancaster for a three-game series starting tomorrow night. RHP Emilio Vargas (7-4, 2.15) will start for the Rawhide against a still to-be-announced JetHawks pitcher. First pitch is at 7:00 PM and tickets are available on rawhidebaseball.com.