Father’s Day Comeback Fails As Grizzlies Drop 10-8 Nail-Biter To Quakes

June 17, 2024 – California League (CalL)
Fresno Grizzlies News Release

Fresno, CA – The Fresno Grizzlies (36-26) came up just short against the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (29-32) 10-8 Sunday evening from Chukchansi Park. Fresno stumbled in the Father’s Day finale, splitting the six-game series with Rancho Cucamonga. The Grizzlies fell to 0-5 at home in two-run affairs and 7-3 overall on Sundays. With the loss and a Modesto victory, the Nuts clinched a playoff spot by winning the first-half of the California League North Division.

The clubs pooled together, netting 18 runs on 27 hits, nine walks and two hit-by-pitches. There were 12 extra-base hits and a run scored in at least four innings by both teams. Rancho Cucamonga soared out to a 7-0 lead after their first four innings of the game. Juan Alonso gave the Quakes a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when he raced around the bases for an inside-the-park homer. The Grizzlies outfielders thought the ball got lodged in the wall padding, never retrieving it. In the top of the third, Logan Wagner made it 2-0 when he belted a solo shot over the batter’s eye in center field. Rancho Cucamonga added two more runs thanks to a Jeral Perez RBI double to left and a wild pitch that plated him. The Quakes pushed across three additional runs in the top of the fourth after a triple and pair of singles. Samuel Munoz was the triple recipient, his fourth of the year.

Despite the deficit, the Grizzlies roared back with six runs over the next three frames. Fresno provided three runs in the bottom of the fourth, highlighted by a Luis Mendez RBI single. Mendez scampered home on a wild pitch and Fadriel Cruz mustered a groundout. In the bottom of the fifth, Felix Tena laced a triple to left-center, notching Braylen Wimmer. The Grizzlies logged two more runs in the bottom of the sixth when Caleb Hobson mashed a two-run tater off the scoreboard in left-center. It was Hobson’s second clout of his 2024 campaign.

The Quakes weren’t done just yet, supplying three insurance runs between the eighth and ninth inning. Wagner whacked a wallop to center field, his second homer of the game, third in the last two contests, fourth of the series and sixth of the year. In the top of the ninth, a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch and force-out extended the Rancho Cucamonga lead to 10-6. The latter of the plays ended with an error, as the runner was out of the base paths and was plunked by the ball, sending it into foul territory.

Trailing by four…