Sellout Crowd Watches Giants Win Fifth in a Row
Published on May 11, 2013 under California League (CalL1)
San Jose Giants News Release
SAN JOSE - The San Jose Giants won their fifth consecutive game with a 5-3 victory over the High Desert Mavericks in front of a sellout crowd of 4,631 at Municipal Stadium on Friday night. San Jose overcame an early 2-0 deficit taking the lead for good with a three-run bottom of the sixth en route to the win. With the victory, the Giants improve their record to a league-best 24-11 at the midpoint of the first half.
Shawn Payne (2-for-4, 2B) and Mac Williamson (2-for-4) had two hits apiece while Chris Lofton (1-for-3, 2 RBI) drove home a pair of runs to lead San Jose offensively. Ryan Cavan (1-for-4) also extended his hitting streak to 18 games in the win.
High Desert took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Jabari Blash connected for a two-run homer to straightaway center off Giants starter Kelvin Marte. Marte though recovered to keep the Mavericks off the scoreboard over the next three frames to end his outing. The left-hander tossed 1-2-3 second and fourth innings and pitched around a pair of hits and a walk in the third.
Meanwhile, Mavericks starter Cam Hobson began his night with three scoreless innings before San Jose broke through in the bottom of the fourth. After consecutive one-out singles from Devin Harris and Williamson, Elliott Blair stepped to the plate and lined an RBI double into right to cut the lead to 2-1. Lofton followed with a groundout to shortstop plating Williamson to tie the game at 2.
Luis Rojas (2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 0 SO) tossed two hitless innings out of the Giants bullpen in the fifth and sixth frames. The right-hander worked through a two-out walk in the fifth and a leadoff walk in the sixth to keep the game tied.
San Jose then took the lead with a three-run bottom of the sixth against Hobson. Cavan began the frame with a line drive single into left before Harris struck out. Williamson then singled up the middle to put runners on first and second while Blair was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Lofton followed with an infield single to shortstop as Cavan scored to give the Giants a 3-2 lead. Eliezer Zambrano was up next and his sacrifice fly to right plated Williamson to make it 4-2. On the play, High Desert right fielder Kevin Rivers threw the ball to third in an attempt to retire Blair, but the ball was mishandled by third baseman Dillon Hazlett for an error allowing another run to score.
Cody Hall (1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO) relieved Rojas to begin the top of the seventh and surrendered a leadoff double to Rivers, but recovered to strikeout the next three hitters to end the inning.
The Mavericks plated a run in the top of the eighth against Bryce Bandilla (1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO), but stranded the potential tying runs on base. After back-to-back one-out walks and a strikeout of Blash, Daniel Paolini delivered a two-out RBI single to bring High Desert to within 5-3. Bandilla though induced the next hitter, Rivers, to ground out weakly back to the mound to finish the inning.
Hunter Strickland (1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO) then worked a 1-2-3 top of the ninth to seal the victory. Strickland began the frame with consecutive three-pitch strikeouts of Steve Baron and Mike McGee before Hazlett grounded out to shortstop.
Rojas (4-1) was credited with his team-high tying fourth win of the season while Strickland notched his fifth save.
Hobson (3-3) suffered the loss after yielding five runs (four earned) on nine hits in seven innings. He walked two and struck out five.
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