The Inland Empire 66ers (28-27) got up and over the .500 mark on Friday night with a 10-3 win over the Modesto Nuts at San Manuel Stadium. Red-hot Edgar Quero had three hits including a double and his sixth home run of the season to lead the offense. Inland Empire’s 2-5 hitters each had at least two hits.
The 19-year old Quero has a 7-game hitting streak and has had three hits in three of his last five games. Quero was slashing .237/.370/.356 on May 24th and has raised those numbers to .293/.406/.473 in the 13 games since.
A tight game was put out of reach in the eighth inning when the 66ers put up five runs.
Each team got two runs in the first inning and then in the fourth inning Quero doubled in a pair of runs to put Inland Empire up 4-2. Modesto got one back in the sixth inning on a David Schaeffer RBI double. But Quero homered in the seventh inning to make it 5-3, 66ers.
Inland Empire sent 10 men to the plate in the bottom of the eighth and five of them came around to score. With two outs and one runner on base, the 66ers got a walk, two singles and three doubles to stretch the lead to 10-6.
Fernando Guanare (W, 1-2) went 5 2/3 innings and allowed 3 runs on 6 hits with no walks and 3 Ks.
Robert Perez Jr. hit his Cal League-leading 16th home run for Modesto. Ben Ramirez had two hits.
The win keeps the 66ers four games out of first place in the South division and three games behind Rancho Cucamonga for second place. Modesto (25-30) is 11 games out of first place in the North.
Inland Empire has won three of the first four games in the six-game series. Game five is Saturday night at 7:05PM.
SCOREBOARD
VISALIA – 3
FRESNO – 7
Gameday
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