Storm falls to Modesto

By: DEVIN KUNYSZ - For The Californian | Sunday, July 24, 2005 8:38 AM PDT ∞

LAKE ELSINORE ---- Despite the electrical storm that threatened to rain out Saturday night's game, the Storm were unable to find any power for their bats as they fell, 6-2, to the Modesto Nuts at The Diamond.

The loss dropped the Storm (15-13 second half) out of first place, a half-game behind South Division-leading Rancho Cucamonga.

Modesto got on the board first against Storm starter Arturo Lopez in the top of the second inning.

Christian Colonel doubled to lead off the inning, and scored when Ian Stewart hit a ball up the middle that glanced off Juan Ciriaco's glove and caromed into shallow center field.

In the bottom of the fourth, there was a chilling incident involving Storm designated hitter Fernando Valenzuela Jr. He drew a walk, but the ball got past Modesto catcher Rick Guarno.

As Valenzuela moved to first, Guarno came up with the ball and fired toward third to catch Ramos, point blank into the head of the unsuspecting Valenzuela.

"I just felt a ringing," Valenzuela said. "I've been hit in the head before, but never on a walk."

Valenzuela remained in the game, however, and showed no signs of serious damage.

He also didn't have to wait long for revenge, as Micheal Johnson blasted an RBI double to right field to score Ramos for Lake Elsinore's first run. However, further production was stifled when Brett Bonvechio, who went 0-for-3 and snapped his hitting streak at 14 games, grounded out to end the threat.

"We had a lot of situations tonight where we couldn't execute with two outs, or even with two strikes," manager Rick Renteria said. "Those are very important parts of the game to execute."

The Storm scored again in the bottom of the fifth, but were again unable to capitalize and only plated one run to take a 2-1 advantage.

In the sixth inning, with a runner on third and one out, Colonel got his second hit of the game on a line-drive single to right that scored Troy Tulowitzki and drove Lopez from the game. The lefty finished with three runs and seven hits give up in 5 2/3 innings.

Howie Pence came in to stop the bleeding, but was unable to prevent Stewart from singling again, and Joe Gaetti came through with his own RBI single.

"That run just got to (Lopez)," Renteria said. "He just lost his focus, but that's what learning to pitch is all about."