Tag Archives: Visalia Rawhide

QUAKES PULL AWAY LATE FOR 4TH STRAIGHT WIN

Rancho Cucamonga 2B Sam McWilliams went 3-for-5 with a double and a 2-run homer to power the Quakes to their fourth straight win in Visalia Friday night. The visitors broke open a tense, low-scoring contest with late-inning offense while RHP Kendall Williams went four strong innings out of the bullpen to hold down the Rawhide for a 9-1 Quakes win.

McWilliams started the scoring in the first inning with a double and two wild pitches that allowed him to come around and score the game’s  first run. 1B Imanol Vargas launched a 2-run shot in the second inning for a 3-0 Rancho Cucamonga lead.

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NUTS STRIKE EARLY IN WIN OVER RAWHIDE

The Modesto Nuts stayed hot Friday night and got six runs in the first two innings to cruise to an 8-1 win over the Rawhide in Visalia. The visitors got three in the first and three in the second and went on to win their sixth game in a row including all four in this series.

CF Victor Labrada went 3-for-4 from the leadoff spot and RF Alberto Rodriguez was 1-for-5 with a homer and four RBIs. RHP Sam Carlson (W, 2-1) went five innings and allowed one run on three hits and five walks with eight strikeouts. He threw 105 pitches, 61 for strikes.

Rawhide starter Adrian Del Moral got knocked around over the first two innings as Modesto built a 6-0 lead, but he bounced back for a 1-2-3 third inning and struck out the first two hitters in the fourth before walking SS Noelvi Marte. RHP Enmanuel Acosta came on in relief of Del Moral and gave up a 2-run homer to Rodriguez to put the Nuts ahead 8-0.

Visalia’s only run came when RF Jefferson Espinal walked to lead off the sixth inning and came home on a sac fly by 1B Lyle Lin.

Modesto RHP Matthew Willdrodt went three shutout innings in relief of Carlson, allowing just one hit with no walks and four strikeouts.

Carlson had a lot of traffic with the five walks, three hits and two HBPs, but he was able to keep the Rawhide off the board with the exception of his last batter coming around to score after he left the game. Odd occurrence, Carlson’s first and last batters were both HBPs.

The Nuts are now 30-22 and picked up a game on first-place San Jose in the North division as they now trail by five games with second-place Fresno two games out. The Rawhide suffered its sixth straight loss and have a record of 13-39. They’re 12 1/2 games behind first-place Rancho Cucamonga in the South Division.

Game five of the six-game series starts at 6:30 tonight.

SCOREBOARD

RANCHO CUCAMONGA – 1
FRESNO – 2
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SAN JOSE – 3
STOCKTON – 4
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INLAND EMPIRE – 3
LAKE ELSINORE – 11
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WEDNESDAY SCORES

A pair of shutouts on the Low-A West scoreboard Wednesday night. Lake Elsinore evened up the series with Inland Empire, shutting out the 66ers 4-0. Fresno did the same with Rancho Cucamonga, evening up their series with a 7-0 win. The Quakes lead the  South division by 1 1/2 games over Lake Elsinore with Inland Empire two games back.

San Jose SS Marco Luciano hit his league-leading 13th homer of the season in a 4-2 loss to Stockton. It was Luciano’s fourth homer in three games. San Jose’s lead in the North is now three games over Fresno.

MODESTO – 5
VISALIA – 3
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INLAND EMPIRE – 0
LAKE ELSINORE – 4
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RANCHO CUCAMONGA – 0
FRESNO – 7
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SAN JOSE – 2
STOCKTON – 4
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QUAKES WIN OPENER AT FRESNO

The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes jumped out on top with a three-run homer from DH Alex De Jesus in the first inning Tuesday night and went on to beat the Grizzlies in Fresno by a score of 5-1. RHP Jimmy Lewis went  2 2/3 scoreless innings and RHP Hyun-il Choi (W, 4-3) came on to cover 5 1/3 innings with only 1 ER as the Quakes held the Grizzlies to just five hits.

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SUNDAY SCORES

FRESNO – 8
VISALIA  – 7
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The Grizzlies got a four-hit game from DH Drew Romo and three hits and three RBIs from LF Zac Veen. Romo’s line is now .313/.349/.485. The Grizzlies  won four of the six games in this series and joined the 30-win club at 30-18. Only San Jose has more wins (33) and Fresno sits three games back in the North division. Visalia is 13-35, 11 1/2 games out in the South.

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VISALIA WINS ON VUKOVICH WALK-OFF

3B A.J. Vukovich broke a 9th-inning tie with an RBI double as the Visalia Rawhide beat the Fresno Grizzlies 6-5 on Friday night. Visalia walked off with a win for the second time in this series which is now even at two games apiece.

Visalia’s offense pounded out 12 hits, led by 1B Ramses Malave who went 3-for-4 with two homers (his 3rd and  4th of the season) and 4 RBIs. Vukovich went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs and 2B Ronny Simon went 3-for-5 from the leadoff spot with 2 runs scored.

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STOCKTON WINS IN 10 AT INLAND EMPIRE

Stockton 3B T.J. Schofield-Sam brought home the winning run with a sac fly in the top of the 10th at San Manuel Stadium as the Ports beat the Inland Empire 66ers 5-4 Thursday night. Sam had a pair of RBIs on the night and CF Junior Perez had two hits and an RBI to lead the offense.

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GIANTS WIN OPENER AGAINST QUAKES

In a battle of first-place clubs, the San Jose Giants belted out 14 hits and drew eight walks to drop the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 9-5 on Tuesday night. LF Alex Canario blasted two home runs (5, 6) and SS Marco Luciano hit his 9th bomb of the year.

Giants starter Ryan Murphy went 3 1/3 IP allowing 4 runs (3ER) on 5 hits and 2 walks with 6 strikeouts. The Giants bullpen stopped the back-and-forth scoring by holding the Quakes to just one run the rest of the way. Righty Austin Reich (W, 3-0) went 2 2/3 scoreless innings allowing just one hit and no walks with four strikeouts. RHP Clay Helvey finished off the game, going 2 IP with no runs, hits or walks and five strikeouts for his sixth save of the season.

The win put the Giants (29-14) up by three games in the North division while the Quakes’ lead in the South shrunk to 2 1/2 games.

VISALIA WALKS OFF WITH FOUR IN THE 9TH INNING

The  Visalia Rawhide beat the Fresno Grizzlies for the first time in 13 tries this season with a four-run bottom of the 9th inning to walk-off with a win. Fresno took a 9-6 advantage into the home half of the 9th but Visalia got what it needed as CF Glenallen Hill Jr. capped off the rally with an RBI single to win it, 10-9.

Each team scored in five different half innings. 1B Neyfy Castillo led Visalia’s 14-hit attack, going 3-for-5 with a triple. Reliever Bobby Ay pitched the final two innings, allowing one run on one hit and three walks with a strikeout and picked up the win when the offense came through.

LAKE ELSINORE – 11
MODESTO – 5
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STOCKTON – 6
INLAND  EMPIRE – 5
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TRANSACTIONS

VISALIA RAWHIDE – OF Jorge Barrosa, SS Roman Ruiz, LHP Denson Hull and RHP Brandon Pfaadt assigned to High-A Hillsboro

3B Alexander Hernandez assigned to Visalia from High-A Hillsboro. RHP Alex Valdez assigned to Visalia from ACL D-Backs

LAKE ELSINORE STORM– LHP Ramon Perez assigned to High-A Fort Wayne

INLAND EMPIRE 66ERS – 1B Julio De La Cruz assigned to Inland Empire from ACL Angels

3B Jose Bonilla assigned to ACL Angels

MODESTO NUTS – RHP Leon Hunter and LHP Max Roberts assigned to Modesto Nuts from Tacoma Rainiers.

 

RAWHIDE WIN 6-4, EVEN SERIES WITH 66ERS

The Visalia Rawhide got three home runs from the offense and 15 strikeouts from four pitchers to post a 6-4 victory over the Inland Empire 66ers on Friday night at Valley Strong Ballpark. Back-to-back wins for Visalia evened the series at two apiece heading into the weekend.

The two teams traded blows for four innings as Inland Empire went up 4-3, but the Rawhide got a two-run homer from RF Neyfy Castillo in the fifth inning and a solo shot from 3B A.J. Vukovich in the seventh to finish the scoring while the bullpen kept the  66ers quiet. Castillo’s 8th homer of the season gave him the Low-A West lead.

Rawhide starter Brandon Pfaadt went 6 innings and earned the win (2-2)  after allowing 7 hits, 4 ER and a walk while striking out 12. The 2020 5th round draft pick threw 87 pitches, 65 for strikes. He gave up back-to-back homers in the 4th inning to squander a 3-1 lead but otherwise had a very strong outing, recording three Ks in three separate innings.

RAWHIDE WORK THE PITCH COUNT

66ers starter Jack Kochanowicz didn’t fare as well, leaving after 2 1/3 innings  and 66 pitches, 39 strikes. The Angels’ #7 prospect allowed 3ER on 3 hits and 2 walks while striking out 4.

A key sequence in the game came when  the Rawhide saw 26 pitches from Kochanowicz in the bottom of the 2nd inning while tying the game up at 1 apiece on a home run from 1B Elian Miranda. Castillo led off the  inning with an 8-pitch AB that ended in a strikeout, but Kochanowicz’ pitch count mounted as the half-inning dragged on before the side was finally retired.

Pfaadt promptly retired the 66ers on just six pitches in the top of the third and Kochanowicz was right back out there after just a brief respite. Rawhide C Lyle Lin led off the  bottom of the third with a four-pitch walk and then 2B S.P. Chen saw 11 pitches in an epic AB that ended with a single to put two on with no outs.

CF Jorge Barrosa doubled in Lin to put Visalia up 2-1. After Kochanowicz struck out Vukovich, he walked Castillo to load the bases and was relieved by RHP Taylor Ahearn. Lin scored on a groundout and Visalia led at that point 3-1.

Pfaadt then surrendered a two-run homer to RF Caleb Scires followed by a solo shot by 2B Jose Guzman to give back the lead before recording six strikeouts over the next 2 1/3 innings to end his night after 6 IP. Visalia was leading 5-4 at that point on the strength of Castillo’s homer and Pfaadt was in line for the win with three innings to go and the Rawhide bullpen taking over.

BULLPEN SEALS IT

Hardly automatic so far this season, the relief corp got the job done tonight. Harrison Francis, Emmanuel Acosta and Liu Fuenmayor (S, 1) each threw a scoreless inning without allowing any hits to nail it down.

Visalia’s record improves to 8-26 and the back-to-back wins have to feel good after the rough start to the season. Inland Empire falls to 15-18 and they are now 4 games behind Rancho Cucamonga in the South division.

ANOTHER STRONG OUTING FOR PFAADT

Brandon Pfaadt went at least six innings for the third straight start and struck out 12 for the second outing in a row. Baseball America noted that Pfaadt’s velocity would dip in the middle innings in college but he threw some of his hardest pitches in the 5th inning according to the stadium scoreboard. He topped out at 93 but I heard earlier in the season that Visalia’s official gun is a bit slow. I have no inside knowledge on that, just something I heard on a broadcast. Regardless, his first pitch of the game was shown as 93 and he hit that mark three times in the fifth before the pitch speeds stopped being displayed.

The seven hits and two homers were season highs, but so were the 12 strikeouts. Pfaadt never appeared to labor in this game and 10 of his 12 strikeouts were swinging. After the back-to-back homers in the fourth he struck out DH Spencer Brown on three pitches clocked at 91, 79 and 92 mph, then threw two more strikes to CF D’Shawn Knowles to induce a groundout to end the inning. Strong comeback from the adversity.

For the season, Pfaadt has walked 6 and struck out 52 over 33 1/3 innings. His WHIP is 0.93 and opponents have batted .195 against him.

CASTILLO, VUKOVICH HEATING UP

Neyfy Castillo touches home plate after his Low-A West leading 8th homer of the season

The two big bats in the middle of Visalia’s batting order are having  more success of late. Neyfy Castillo has homered in back-to-back games and has hit safely in nine of his  last 11 games to raise his batting average over 30 points. His slugging pct. is up to .454, its highest since May 12th.

A.J. Vukovich is 9 for his last 26 and has a slash line of .300/.382/.467 for the month of June. Friday night’s homer was his first since May 29th and he’s hit safely in four straight games.

SOUNDED LIKE A NIGHT AT THE BALLPARK

Valley Strong Ballpark still isn’t filling up to capacity but on this Friday night it sounded like a minor league ballpark is supposed to sound. Lots of energy in the park with constant chatter throughout. The fans made noise for the back-and-forth action and the kids could be heard playing all night. It won’t be up to full capacity until June 22nd but on this Friday night it felt and sounded like they’re almost there.

ETHRIDGE DOMINATES IN GRIZZLIES WIN

Fresno RHP Will Ethridge gave up a leadoff single in the first inning and then set down the next 18 Visalia Rawhide batters as the Grizzlies won the series opener 8-1 on Tuesday night. C Drew Romo went 2-for-4 with a double and an RBI as the Grizzlies pounded out 11 hits.

With the win, Fresno (15-10) moved to within two games of first-place Modesto (17-8) in the North Division and stayed a game behind San Jose (16-9) for second place.

Visalia’s S.P. Chen singled to lead off the game and moved to second on an errant pickoff throw. A fly out to CF put Chen on third with one out but Ethridge struck  out A.J. Vukovich and  Neyfy Castillo to end the threat. Ethridge didn’t allow another baserunner.

The Grizzlies got on the board with Romo’s RBI double in the second inning, then added two more on Ezequiel Tovar‘s 2-RBI double in the third. Fresno scored in four straight innings to push the lead up to 8-0 before Visalia got on the board with an RBI single by Jorge Barrosa in the 8th inning to close out the scoring.

Ethridge (W, 2-1) threw 79 pitches, 56 for strikes, while allowing just one hit and no walks with 8 Ks.

SCOREBOARD

MODESTO – 3
SAN JOSE – 4
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INLAND EMPIRE – 2
RANCHO CUCAMONGA – 4
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LAKE ELSINORE – 1
STOCKTON – 6
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