Five-run third inning helps Lake Elsinore snap three-game skid

By: JEFF SANDERS - Staff Writer | Thursday, April 12, 2007 11:14 PM PDT ∞

LAKE ELSINORE -- Padres farm director Grady Fuson pegged the 2007 Storm team he assembled as a club with special offensive potential.

In Thursday's home opener, with skidding High Desert in town, those expectations began to materialize.

Nic Crosta belted a grand slam, David Freese and Kyle Blanks each doubled and drove in a pair and the Storm bullpen threw 3 1/3 scoreless innings in an 11-6 win that ended a three-game skid and gave Lake Elsinore just its second win in the first eight games to start the season.

"We've been in every game," Crosta said. "The season's so long. We know we're going to hit. The run production is going to come."

In other words, never mind the team's .211 batting average coming into Thursday' s home opener.

The Angels, after all, threw Bartolo Colon and Jered Weaver at the Storm in their first two games and the JetHawks had top prospects Michael Bowden and Daniel Bard take the mound in two starts in Lancaster, where the 30-mph winds swirled from home base out to right field during the Storm's last night there.

Plus, four defeats were of the one-run variety and all six were by three runs or less.

"I know we'll be al right," Storm manager Carlos Lezcano said. "I know that. I know we'll be fine. But on the same token, you can't say you'll be fine every day. You have to make your adjustments."

Crosta's adjustment in the third inning was a perfect example.

A strikeout victim in the first, he came to the plate two innings later with the bases loaded and the Storm looking up at a 5-2 deficit. After taking two balls from Mavericks' left-hander Paul Fagan, Crosta turned on a 2-and-0 fastball and deposited it off the scoreboard in left for his second hit and home run of the season -- a grand slam that gave Lake Elsinore enough momentum to send High Desert to its sixth straight loss.

"I took some good hacks in my first at-bat," Crosta said of his first pro grand slam. "I was staying back. (In the third) I went up 2-0 and was sitting on an inside fastball. He threw it and I was lucky to get the bat head out front."

Said Lezcano: "The grand slam is the ultimate hit in baseball. It's great for the fans, great for us."

Jose Lobaton added a run-scoring single in that five-run third, Blanks drove in his second run on a sacrifice fly in a two-run fourth and Seth Johnston -- a defensive replacement after Antonelli (out two to three days) strained his left groin running the bases after his first-inning double -- collected three hits. Mike Baxter also tallied two hits and four runs scored.

The middle-inning onslaught softened the blow of a rough start from left-hander Brent Carter, who allowed six runs -- five earned -- on 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings. Carter, though, yielded just one run after the Mavericks opened a four-run second with four consecutive hits and he didn't walk a batter before handing a lead to his bullpen in the sixth.

"(Carter) goes and does that, and that shows me something," Lezcano said. "He could've have said it was all downhill after that (four-run second), but he didn't."

Dirk Hayhurst pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings, Kyle Stutes tossed a perfect eighth and John Madden escaped the ninth unscathed despite two walks.

-- Staff writer Jeff Sanders can be reached at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2629 or at jsanders@californian.com.