LAKE ELSINORE-- Lake Elsinore spotted visiting Inland Empire three runs and never recovered.

The 66ers scored three times before the Storm came to bat, and although they came back with two in the bottom half of the inning, the Storm got no closer and fell 7-2 at The Diamond on Friday night.

The win allowed Inland Empire (50-55 overall, 19-16 second half) to leapfrog over Lancaster and move into second place in the California League South Division, a half-game behind Rancho Cucamonga.

The Storm (48-57, 16-19), meanwhile, dropped their second straight but remained in fourth, 3 1/2 games behind the Quakes. However, their lead over fifth-place High Desert shrank to one game at the midway point of the second half.

"All year long, we've gotten close to .500, but we can't get over that hump," Storm manager Carlos Lezcano said. "For some reason, there's no consistency to our play on a long-term basis.

"These kids need to realize you have to come to play every day. You can't get comfortable. You have to play to win no matter if you're 10 under or 10 over .500."

The 66ers first four batters in the game reached base. Trayvon Robinson tripled to start the first and Bridger Hunt walked. Tommy Giles and Drew Locke followed with RBI singles, and Matt Berezay's run-scoring ground out made it 3-0.

The Storm got to within one in the bottom of the first when Mitch Canham tripled home Eric Sogard and Kellen Kulbacki.

The Storm, however, would not score again despite a plethora of opportunities.

They stranded eight runners, including at least one in each of the first seven innings, and a double-play grounder erased another Storm runner in the eighth.

Only in the ninth did Lake Elsinore go down in order.

"You have to take advantage of those opportunities," Lezcano said.

Inland Empire doubled its lead to 4-2 with an unearned run in the third. Locke reached on an errant throw by second baseman Sogard and came around to score on Austin Gallagher's double.

Storm starter Ernesto Frieri departed after the fifth inning with the Storm trailing 4-2. The right-hander gave up four runs (three earned) on six hits and a walk while striking out six.

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for Frieri (6-6), who had also won five of his last six decisions.

"(Frieri) showed good things," Lezcano said. "He held them there. We made a couple of bad plays behind him, and he didn't show any emotion. He went right after it. He showed a lot of maturity tonight. That was nice to see.

"He didn't get the win, but he battled, even when he had to get extra outs."

Brandon Gomes came on and struck out the first two batters he faced, but then gave up three straight hits, including Hunt's two-run single. Locke made it 7-2 with a monster blast over the left-field wall leading off the seventh.

Inland Empire starter Steve Johnson also went five innings, holding the Storm to the two first-inning runs on six hits and two walks to improve to 3-1 in four Cal League starts since his promotion from Great Lakes (Mich.) of the Low-A Midwest League.

Johnson is picking up where he left off in Great Lakes. The 20-year-old right-hander went 9-2 with a 2.34 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 13 starts for the Loons.

Javy Guerra and David Pfeiffer each contributed two scoreless innings of relief for Inland Empire.

Contact staff writer Ed Wehde at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2633 or ewehde@californian.com.