Storm on verge of Cal League title

By: ED WEHDE - Staff Writer | Saturday, September 17, 2005 12:09 AM PDT ∞

LAKE ELSINORE ---- Eddie Bonine pitched the Storm to the brink of their second outright California League Championship. The right-handed knuckleballer held San Jose to a lone run on a pair of hits in 8 1/3 innings as the Storm beat the Giants, 4-1, at The Diamond on Friday to take a two-games-to-none lead in the best-of-five title series.

"(Bonine) did a great job," Storm manager Rick Renteria said. "His last few outings have been pretty good. He's really starting to use his knuckleball effectively, and that makes his fastball so much more effective.

"I'm happy for (Eddie). He did a very nice job for us tonight."

The Storm can close out their second on-field championship in San Jose tonight. In 1996, they downed the Giants in the Cal League finals for their first title, and in 2001, the Storm and San Jose shared a co-championship after the events of Sept. 11 halted the playoffs in mid-stream.

Bonine kept the Giants off balance all night, mixing a darting knuckleball with a fastball that topped out at 93 mph. The 24-year-old struck out a season-high nine batters without issuing a walk.

He gave up a two-out single in the first, then retired 13 straight until a Brian Dowdy error in the sixth. Bonine got the next 10 batters before a one-out single in the ninth ended his evening.

"I was mixing it up between a slow knuckleball and a hard knuckleball and a fastball," Bonine said. "These guys played some great defense, so I kept trying to challenge (the batters) and hopefully get quick outs, and it worked out.

"It was a great team win tonight."

Leo Rosales replaced Bonine and gave up an RBI triple and a walk, but got the last two outs to end the game.

Colt Morton gave the Storm a 1-0 lead with a deep home run over the left-field scoreboard opening the second ---- his 11th homer with the Storm and his third of the playoffs.

The Storm added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh when they loaded the bases off San Jose starter Jason Waddell (1-1) without a hit. Joe Bateman relieved Waddell with two outs and promptly gave up a two-run ground-rule double to Juan Ciriaco.

With no outs in the eighth, Brett Dowdy singled, stole second, moved to third when the throw got past shortstop Jake Wald and raced home when center fielder Clay Timpner overran the ball.

Storm watch

Dowdy's boot of Guillermo Rodriguez's grounder in the sixth was the Storm's first error of the postseason. ... Morton has driven in at least one run in each of the Storm's five playoff games.