LAKE ELSINORE – A night after their first shoutout loss, the Storm offense bounced back Thursday, scoring in the first two innings to jump ahead 3-0. From there, the Storm rode some solid pitching and eventually held on to a 5-4 victory at The Diamond.
Nick Vogt had the big hit on Saturday. (Photo: Robert Escalante)
Storm catcher Jacob Campbell put the Storm on the board early with a booming double to left that bounced off the wall, scoring Jay Beshears. The ball narrowly missed leaving the park for a three-run shot as a swirling wind to all fields made fly balls an adventure.
“[Campbell] has only been here a short time but he’s already hit about five or six balls with triple-digit velocity,” said Storm manager Lukas Ray after the Storm victory. “So [he’s] been impressive”
The Storm added a pair of runs in the second inning on a sacrifice fly from right fielder Braedon Karpathios and second baseman Jose Sanabria scored on a wild pitch.
The Storm sent righthander Sam Whiting to the mound for his third start since the 23-year-old was moved back from Fort Wayne to work out of the rotation. The Padres’ 16th-round pick last year out of UC Santa Barbara featured a low-90s fastball and a changeup that kept Inland Empire off-balance. Whiting completed three shutout innings, his longest outing as he gets stretched out.
After Whiting departed, the club received more solid work from lefty Harry Gustin, who completed one of the best outings of his professional career. The former University of Hawaii starter worked a career-high five innings and allowed two runs on five hits. He did give up some hard contact at times but helped himself out. In the seventh, after allowing a walk and a single, Gustin generated a groundball double play to end the inning. He breezed through the eighth, notching a pair of strikeouts.
“We were able to get Whiting stretched out to three innings [which is important],” said Ray. “For Gustin that was the second time he was able to give us at least four innings without allowing more than two runs which was huge.”
Offensively, center fielder Nick Vogt set a new career-high with four hits as part of a huge night for the Storm. He singled three times and hit a triple to the vast left-center gap in his home park. He also added a pair of stolen bases.
“With Dillon Head moving on from the organization, he’s kind of taken over the reins in center,” said Ray. “He’s come in and made a few nice defensive plays. On the triple, if the wind isn’t blowing he might have had a chance to get out of here. He’s stealing bases and had four hits tonight which was good to see.”
Notes
Leodalis De Vries continues to be held out of the lineup. He has been out of action since he suffered a left shoulder injury last week diving for a ball in San Jose. He is still in Lake Elsinore and is close to a return but there is no current timeline. … Righty Eric Yost will make the start for Elsinore Friday night as they look for their fifth win in six games.
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