Rawhide Take Down Storm in Extra-Innings

VISALIA,CA-During a back-and-forth game that started out in 105-degree weather and ended in heavy rain, the Visalia Rawhide snapped their three-game losing streak when Channy Ortiz scored from third base on a wild pitch from Storm reliever Seth Mayberry giving them the 5-4 victory in the bottom of the 10th.

Both teams had short but spectacular times on the mound with Visalia’s starter on Thursday night being Jamison Hill, making the first professional start of his career. He pitched only four innings but gave up a mere two hits and zero earned runs while also tossing three strikeouts. Hill just recently joined the Rawhide on Wednesday and played college ball just 40 minutes away at Fresno State.

Also making the first appearance professional appearance of his career was Chad Patrick, the Diamondback’s 2021 4th rounder. He pitched three innings in relief of Hill and gave up only four hits and the games only earned run to go with four strikeouts. Also pitching relief on Thursday night were Alex Valdez and David Sanchez who combined to toss the game’s remaining three innings with zero earned runs or hits and two strikeouts, both by Valdez. Sanchez picked up the win on the night putting his record at 3-0 on the season.

The Rawhide made an unsightly four errors that could have been more if not for a scorer’s decision that gave the Storm a hit in the top of the seventh that could’ve gone either way. The Storm also produced a boatload of errors but they had one less misplay to their advantage and Lake Elsinore wasn’t able to take advantage of them.

A game that saw minimal hitting (13 hits combined by the two clubs) left the rawhide with only five of the nine players in their Thursday night lineup being able to get on base with a hit, Neyfy Castillo, Deyvison De Los Santos, Caleb Roberts, Ryan Bliss and Wilderd Patino, with only De Los Santos and Patino able to knock it in twice. Tim Tawa was also able to “knock” in a run by being hit by a pitch with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th.

The Rawhide play game four of their final 2021 series against Lake Elsinore on Friday at 6 PM pacific time.