Ports Score Early, Fend off Giants’ Late Push

July 3, 2024 – California League (CalL)
Stockton Ports News Release

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The Ports scored in each of the first five innings on Tuesday night at Excite Ballpark, including two runs in
the fourth. Though errors let the Giants back into the game in the late innings, Stockton ultimately won game two of the series
8-5.

The Ports played some of their best baseball of the season in the first half of the game, which is perhaps why they believed
they could clean up the sloppy second half at some point and hang on for the victory, even getting some breathing room in the
ninth. Doubles from Ryan Lasko (15) and Nate Nankil (16) put Stockton ahead 1-0 in the first inning, and it could have been 2-0
if it weren’t for a perfect relay from left to get T.J. Schofield-Sam at the plate for the second out of the inning.

Starter Jackson Finley got around some two-out trouble in the bottom of the first inning, needing 30 pitches to navigate a base-
loaded jam. He would face the minimum in the second and third innings, and left after allowing just a two-out single in the fourth
for a scoreless 3.2 innings on 70 pitches.

Clark Elliott hit his first triple of the season on a rocket to right with one out in the second, before Myles Naylor doubled (6) off
the wall in right center for a 2-0 lead. Bjay Cooke hit his first home run of the season on a fly ball out to deep left to go up 3-0 in
the third inning, followed by Elliott hitting his second triple to start the fourth.

Myles Naylor again hit a deep fly ball with Elliott at third base, this time to straight-away center that went off the batter’s eye,
taking a big hop that center fielder Wade Meckler could not track. After getting twisted around on the initial bounce, Meckler
couldn’t locate the ball, which began to roll back towards the infield.

Manager Javier Godard waved Naylor home and he raced ahead of the throw for an inside-the-park home run on his team-
leading eighth round tripper of the season for a 5-0 advantage. Darlyn Montero hits second home run (3) in as many starts since
returning from injury, when he belted a no-doubter to deep right to go up 6-0. That run at the time felt like it was plenty extra for
the Ports, before it would end up the winning run by the end of the night.

The fifth inning started with a throwing error by catcher Carlos Amaya after a swinging strikeout on a bouncer in the dirt, which
was the first of four errors on the night for the Ports. An error by Elvis Rijo at third…