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CalL1 San Jose Giants

Giants Return Home To Defeat Lake Elsinore, 6-3

April 21, 2009 - California League (CalL1)
San Jose Giants News Release


Conor Gillaspie hit his first home run of the season and Clayton Tanner fired 5 2/3 effective innings to lead the San Jose Giants to a 6-3 victory over the Lake Elsinore Storm on a warm Monday night at Municipal Stadium. In the opener of a three-game series, every Giants starter pounded out at least one hit in a balanced 13-hit offensive attack. With the win, San Jose has now claimed five out of their last six games and boasts a 9-3 overall record.

Gillaspie (2-for-3, HR, RBI), Angel Villalona (2-for-3), Thomas Neal (2-for-4, 2 RBI) and Nick Noonan (2-for-4) each supplied multiple-hit games at the plate to lead the Giants. San Jose out-hit Lake Elsinore by a 13-6 margin.

Tanner (1-0) earned his first win of the season after surrendering just two runs (one earned) on four hits during his stint on the mound. The left-hander, who allowed just one hit after the second inning, walked one and struck out five during his 71-pitch performance.

Trailing 2-0, Gillaspie led off the bottom of the second inning for the Giants with a home run to straightaway center field off of Storm starting pitcher Jeremy Hefner. Two batters later, Villalona lined a single to left before Neal delivered a two-out single to put runners on first and second. Darren Ford followed with a line drive single into center field to easily score Villalona with the tying run. On the play, Lake Elsinore center fielder Robert Perry attempted to throw out Neal at third base, but the throw bounced off of the baserunner and rolled into foul territory. The error allowed Neal to score for a 3-2 Giants advantage, although Ford was later thrown out at third base trying to advance on the play.

San Jose extended their lead to 4-2 in the bottom of the fifth when Brandon Crawford ripped a one-out triple into the right field corner before Buster Posey belted an RBI double high off the fence in deep right center.

Tanner allowed single runs in each of the first two innings, but then held the Storm off the scoreboard for the remainder of his outing. The southpaw retired Lake Elsinore 1-2-3 in the third and fourth frames before inducing double play groundouts in the fifth and sixth innings to help his cause. He exited the game in the top of the sixth with a runner at first base and two outs as T.J. Brewer entered from the bullpen and promptly struck out Lance Zawadzki to end the threat.

In the seventh, Felix Carrasco led off with a single before Logan Forsythe doubled to put runners at second and third with none out. Brewer then retired Cole Figueroa on a ground out to second base, however Carrasco scored to make it 4-3 while Forsythe advanced to third. Yefri Carvajal was up next and he grounded out to shortstop with Forsythe holding at third before Beamer Weems struck out swinging to strand the potential tying run in scoring position.

The Giants added two more runs in the bottom of the eighth when Neal came through with a two-out, two-run single into center field.

Daniel Turpen, who entered the game to begin the top of the eighth, was credited with his first save of the year for San Jose. Turpen retired six out of the seven batters he faced while recording two strikeouts. In the ninth, Carrasco drew a one-out walk, but Turpen recovered to strike out Forsythe before Figueroa lined out to first.

Hefner (0-3) suffered the loss for Lake Elsinore despite striking out nine batters and issuing only one walk over five innings. The right-hander was tagged for eight hits and four runs (three earned).

Zawadzki initially gave the Storm a 1-0 lead with a two-out, solo homer off of Tanner in the top of the first. Lake Elsinore added a run in the second on a throwing error committed by Crawford at shortstop.

Notes: The Giants have won three games in a row ... Monday marked their first game of the season against a team from the Southern Division ... San Jose has now won 13 consecutive games (includes post-season) against the Storm at Municipal Stadium dating back to July of 2007 ... The Giants are 23-1 versus Lake Elsinore in San Jose since the 2005 season ... Neal has five hits in his last seven at-bats after an 0-for-11 slump ... The home run for Gillaspie was the first of his professional career (36 games) ... The game-time temperature was 87 degrees ... Former San Jose Giants and current San Francisco Giants Pablo Sandoval, Joe Martinez and Alex Hinshaw watched the game from the stands ... Sandoval participated in the popular "Smash-For-Cash" promotion on the field in the middle of the sixth inning.

On Deck: The Giants and Storm continue this three-game series on Tuesday evening with first pitch at Municipal Stadium scheduled for 7:00 PM. Tim Alderson (0-0, 4.32 ERA) is slated to start on the mound for San Jose while Lake Elsinore is expected to counter with Cory Luebke (1-1, 1.42 ERA). Tickets are available and can be purchased by calling (408)297-1435 or by visiting www.sjgiants.com.

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