3B Rio Ruiz led off the bottom of the 10th inning with a home run to give the Lancaster Jethawks a 4-3 win over the Visalia Rawhide in the California League Championship Series Saturday night. Lancaster will go for the championship-clinching win tonight at The Hangar at 5PM.
Brandon Sinnery of Visalia and Vincent Velasquez of Lancaster each pitched six strong innings while allowing two earned runs. The Rawhide got two first-inning runs, one of them unearned, before Lancaster came back with single runs in the third and fourth innings.
Velasquez was chased from the game in the top of the seventh after allowing two singles and a double to give the Rawhide a 3-2 lead. But the Jethawks came back in the bottom of the seventh with an unearned run that tied the game until Ruiz’ blast finished it in extra innings.
Tonight’s game is a 5PM start. It’s must-win for Visalia, down two games to one in the best-of-five series. Lancaster is looking for its second Cal League title in the last three years.
