Marco Hernandez homered in the seventh inning, his first of the season, to provide the winning margin for Rancho Cucamonga in a 5-4 victory over Lake Elsinore at LoanMart Field. The second straight win for the Quakes cut the Storm’s lead in the South division to two games.
Lake Elsinore scored first on an RBI double by Albert Fabian in the fourth inning. Fabian had three hits to lead the Storm.
Rancho Cucamonga got to Storm starter Garrett Hawkins after four scoreless innings. Jake Vogel singled in a run in the fifth inning and Kenneth Betancourt followed with an RBI double for a 2-1 lead.
The Quakes stretched the lead to 4-1 with two more in the sixth on RBI singles by Damon Keith and Luis Yanel Rodriguez.
Lake Elsinore rallied for two runs in the seventh on an RBI single by Jared Alvarez-Lopez and a GIDP to make it 4-3. Hernandez’ home run in the bottom of the seventh added an insurance run for the Quakes and it came in handy when Kervin Pichardo led off the top of the ninth with a home run to pull Lake Elsinore to within a run. But Roque Gutierrez got three straight outs to finish it off.
The two teams have split the first four games of the six-game series. Game five is Saturday night at 6:30PM.
SCOREBOARD
INLAND EMPIRE – 5
VISALIA – 6
Gameday
STOCKTON – 5
SAN JOSE – 4
11 Innings
Gameday
Story
FRESNO – 11
MODESTO – 10
12 Innings
Gameday
Story
