Two pitches later, Lockhart took a 2-2 hanging breaking ball from Diaz (L, 2-1) and blasted his second homer of the season off of the roof of the barn in right-center, sealing the second walk-off win for Visalia on the season, and their first by walk-off home run. The shot gave Visalia (1-0, 37-34) their season-best sixth consecutive win dating back to the end of the first half, and got them started with a victory in the second half standings. Visalia has now also won five of their six straight against San Jose (0-1, 30-41).

Jeter (W, 2-3) blew his third save of the season, holding a 5-2 lead heading into the ninth inning. He surrendered and RBI double to Dillon Dobson and a two-run homer to Gio Brusa with nobody out, but, even with two runners on, was able to preserve the tie.

Cody Reed was solid for Visalia, allowing two runs on seven hits with six strikeouts in six innings, walking just one. He left in line for the win. Matt Krook pitched his shortest outing in almost a month for the Giants, going 4 innings and allowing 5 runs on just six hits.

Visalia took a 5-2 lead despite two solo homers by the Giants from Ryan Howard and Jalen Miller thanks to an RBI single by Sergio Alcantara, an RBI double by Austin Byler, and a two-run double by Jason Morozowski. Alcantara also grounded out to bring home an insurance run in the fourth inning.

Visalia’s offense went quiet, not getting a hit between the third and sixth innings, until Byler slashed his second double of the game. He and Alcantara had multi-hit nights for the Rawhide.

The Rawhide will look for their seventh straight win tomorrow and will send RHP Justin Donatella (3-8, 4.33) to the mound against San Jose right-hander Jake McCasland (2-7, 5.61). First pitch is at 7:00 and tickets are still available at rawhidebaseball.com.

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With the Cal League’s RBI leader Gianfranco Wawoe at the plate, Jeter fell behind 2-1. Then he got Wawoe to chase a fastball up and out of the zone, and something clicked. Jeter struck out Wawoe on a 3-2 fastball for the first out, but the heart of the order was coming up. Logan Taylor, who had hit the ball to the track twice and hit a solo homer in the sixth inning stood in and Jeter fell behind once again 3-0. But after getting a strike called on the inside corner, Jeter induced a fly-out to right-fielder Jason Morozowski. The fly ball brought home Jordan Cowan to make it a one-run game, and brought power-hitter Joey Curletta to the plate. But then Jeter did something he hadn’t done all night: he got a first-pitch strike. Three pitches later, he struck out Curletta on a high fastball and the Rawhide had defeated Modesto for the first time this season.

Each team had missed opportunities in the later innings. Both Visalia (12-10) and Modesto (13-9) had the go-ahead run in scoring position in the seventh and eighth innings. But the Rawhide ran themselves into outs on the base paths and the Nuts ran into Kirby Bellow who thrived in the high stress situations and got out of both jams unscathed. The Rawhide capitalized on their scoring chance in the ninth off of Matt Festa when Francis Christy doubled off the top of the right field wall with one out. Henry Castillo followed with a walk, and then Matt McPhearson drove a line drive over Eric Filia’s head in right to score Christy and retake the lead, 4-3. With Castillo on third, Galli Cribbs laid down a safety squeeze that brought home Castillo to give the Rawhide the two-run cushion. Festa (1-1) was responsible for all of the runs that came across in the ninth inning.

The safety squeeze ended up being the difference in the ballgame.

Neither starter factored into tonight’s decision. Justin Donatella was solid for Visalia, tossing three no-hit innings to start his night before surrendering his only run of the evening in the fourth. Donatella exited after five innings after allowing one run on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts. He stranded runners on second and third in the fifth by striking out Wawoe looking on a fastball. Nuts starter Pablo Lopez gave up two runs in the first inning when Cribbs doubled to lead off the game and Gregor Blanco singled to move him to third. Blanco would steal second, and then back-to-back groundouts from Morozowski and Marty Herum scored Cribbs and Blanco respectively. Lopez was chased with one out in the fifth after allowing a leadoff single to Castillo and issuing a walk to Cribbs. Blanco would single home Castillo off of Lopez’s replacement, Kody Kerski.

Blanco finished with a game-high three hit night and stole three bases while driving in a run and scoring one. Herum saw his seven-game hitting streak snapped, but he drove home his team-leading 13th RBI. Visalia rattled off a double-digit hit total for the first time this week and won their first game against Modesto this season. With the win, Visalia now is one game behind Modesto in the California League North standings.

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The inning, Visalia’s biggest of the homestand, staked the Rawhide and starter Trevor Simms to a 5-1 lead at the time, which was more than enough for Simms. The right-hander wasn’t dominant, and never retired the Storm in order, but he minimized the damage and worked out of a couple of tough jams to pitch a season high six innings. Simms (2-1) delivered his team-leading third quality start and, more importantly, gave the bullpen some much needed rest after no starting pitcher has lasted past the fourth in the last three games.

The Rawhide tacked on insurance runs in third and fifth innings, thanks to a sacrifice fly by Daniel Lockhart and an RBI single off the bat of Grant Heyman respectively. After the fifth, Visalia held a 7-2 lead.

Lake Elsinore (9-12) would tack on another pair of runs in the eighth off of Cameron Gann when Josh Naylor hit his second home run of the series to plate Michael Gettys, making it a 3-run game. Gann would retire the next two men before walking Javier Guerra.  With the tying run on deck, Rawhide Manager Shelley Ducan called upon Bud Jeter, who struck out Ruddy Giron, and locked down the game in ninth inning to earn his fifth save of the season, tying him for the league lead.

Visalia (11-10) totaled 13 hits in the game, and saw every player in the lineup reach base, with eight of them recording hits. Heyman and Byler led the way with three hits apiece, while Frank Christy added two. Former Major Leaguer Gregor Blanco slapped a 2-RBI single in the Rawhide second, going 1-4 in his first game of a  minor league assignment while he tries to earn his way back to a big league roster spot.

The Rawhide will hit the road to Modesto and return to action tomorrow evening and will send RHP Justin Donatella against Modesto’s Pablo Lopez. First pitch will be at 7:05 PM and the Rawhide’s live broadcast of the game will be available on rawhidebaseball.com and on the MiLB At Bat app.

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