The first round of six-game series are in the books and while no team was able to pull off a clean sweep, the Lake Elsinore Storm came pretty close with five wins against the Visalia Rawhide. The Modesto Nuts won four of six from Stockton and the San Jose Giants and Fresno Grizzlies split.
Rancho Cucamonga and Inland Empire had their series interrupted by a covid-related postponement but the Quakes eventually took three of the five games they were able to play.
STANDINGS
NORTH
MODESTO 4-2
FRESNO 3-3
SAN JOSE 3-3
STOCKTON 2-4
SOUTH
LAKE ELSINORE 5-1
RANCHO CUCAMONGA 3-2
INLAND EMPIRE 2-3
VISALIA 1-5
PLAYERS
On offense, Lake Elsinore’s Brandon Valenzuela is leading the league with 10 base hits, while carrying a line of .417/.533/.792. That 1.325 OPS leads the league.
His teammate, CF Robert Hassell III checks in with a .469 OBP including seven base hits and eight walks.
Fresno 2B Isaac Collins has gone 8-for-16 with three walks and three runs scored for a .579 OBP.
With all of the offense that came out of that Lake Elsinore – Visalia series it’s no surprise that the co-leaders in homeruns were featured there. Valenzuela, Visalia 2B Ronny Simon and Visalia 3B A.J. Vukovich all went deep three times.
Modesto OF Cade Marlowe posted a slash line of .368/.519/.526 with seven hits in 19 ABs and six runs scored.
Those are just a few of the offensive standouts this past week.
And among the standouts on the mound, Inland Empire’s Jose Salvador stuck out 12 batters in 4 1/3 innings against Rancho Cucamonga. Taylor Dollard of Modesto had a sparkling pro debut with four innings of two-hit ball, striking out 10 with no walks.
Fresno’s Breiling Eusebio logged 10 innings over two starts and struck out 10 while walking three to go 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA. San Jose’s Justin Crump appeared in relief twice for four IP with no runs allowed, two hits and two walks against five strikeouts and he leads the Low-A West in wins at 2-0.
TEAMS
The Storm (50) and Rawhide (40) are tops in runs scored with Modesto third at 23. For team OBP, the Storm (.380), the Nuts (.338) and the Rawhide (.336) are the top three teams. And half the league is in double digits for stolen bases: Fresno (15), Visalia (14), Stockton (13) and Inland Empire (12)
There was a lot of good pitching on display in the Rancho Cucamonga – Inland Empire series and those two staffs allowed the fewest base hits over the first week: IE (33) and Rancho Cucamonga (37), albeit with one fewer game. In WHIP, it was the 66ers (1.19), Fresno (1.29) and the Quakes and Giants tied at 1.33.
Inland Empire led the league in strikeouts with 81, followed by Modesto with 80 and Lake Elsinore and San Jose at 72. The Grizzlies allowed the fewest walks, 20, followed by Rancho Cucamonga at 22 and San Jose and Inland Empire with 23.
Off we go to week two. It will be interesting to see how things shake out when the teams mix and match opponents. Here are the matchups for the coming week:
INLAND EMPIRE at LAKE ELSINORE
MODESTO at RANCHO CUCAMONGA
VISALIA at FRESNO
SAN JOSE at STOCKTON
