Storm Rally for 6-5 Victory

LAKE ELSINORE — The Storm pulled off an exciting comeback win Friday night, twice overcoming deficits to claim their third win in four games against the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, 6-5. 

“I’m just so proud of these guys because they executed on so many levels. [It was] really a fun game to be a part of,” said Storm manager Brian Burres, whose team did played sound defense while their opponents made five errors and allowed three unearned runs.

“I thought we pitched well and had some great at-bats later in the game.”

Winyer Chourio, 21, who joined the club from the Arizona Complex League on August 1, made his first start of the year in a bullpen game and delivered four innings of one-run ball while striking out six against one walk and a pair of hits.

“He was huge for us and totally set the tone,” said Burres. “He allowed us to use the rest of our guys in a somewhat normal manner.”

Lake Elsinore got on the board in the fourth when Carlos Rodriguez grounded to third base with Dylan Grego on second. Grego aggressively broke from second base as soon as the throw to first was released, which drew an errant return throw that allowed him to come around to score.

“We’ve just had him for a short time, but Dylan is always looking to take any advantage that he can from the other team,” said Burres. “He’s just a solid player on both sides of the ball.”

After Rancho Cucamonga put three runs up against Landry Jurecka in the top of the fifth, the Storm immediately got two back. George Bilecki laced a double down the left field line to bring in Jose Quintana, who had drawn a leadoff walk. With two outs, Alex McCoy hit a 0-2 line drive up the middle to plate Bilecki and cut the deficit to one.

“He’s come so far from last year when he first joined us,” said Burres. “He’s really becoming a solid baseball player and has become much more polished. Combine that with his athleticism and size, he’s someone to watch.” 

The Storm tied the game one inning later when Kavares Tears tripled off the wall and then came home on a wild pitch.

The Quakes retook the lead in the seventh, but the Storm again rallied as they put together one of their better innings of the season.

Ryan Wideman led off with a walk. then quickly advanced to third on an errant pickoff throw. With the tying run on third base, McCoy worked a six-pitch at-bat before softly lining a ball up the middle to tie the game.

“It’s something I’ve really been working on,” said McCoy, who finished the night with three hits. “With two strikes, I want to give my team a chance and just try to make good contact and hope something will happen.”

McCoy then stole his 13th bag in 14 attempts to get to second before Rodriguez singled home the big man from Maryland to put the home team on top.

Kleiber Olmedo held the Quakes scoreless in his third inning to set up Adam Conrad for the save. The 22-year-old righty quickly struck out his first two batters before issuing a walk, which has been his primary challenge in his first full professional season. Conrad bounced back to get the final out on fly ball to center and claim his fourth save of the year.

“Again, it was just a really fun night,” said a smiling Burres. 

Notes: Grego put together his fourth straight multi-hit game, collecting a pair of singles batting out of the three-hole. He now sports a .716 OPS through his first 100 professional plate appearances. … In addition to his three hits, McCoy also drew a walk as he pushed his August line to a stellar .372/.456/.640. Encouragingly, he has significantly increased his walk total while cutting his strikeout rate to just 16.5% this month, less than half his mark in April. Overall, the 6-foot-6, 280-pound outfielder has a .314/.396/.512 slash line in 191 plate appearances on the year.