The Valencia Stars returned to the familiar surroundings at Dunn Field to begin a eight-game homestand beginning with the Brownies from Brook Park. The home team managed to come out on the winning side of the ledger in three out of the four contests treating the locals to some enjoyable baseball heading into the latter stages of July.
Here are some of the highlights of these games:
Valencia 5 Brook Park 4
The series started off with a barnburner as Santiago hit a 426 foot solo shot to lead off the game and then scored three runs in a two-out rally that included singles by Bernd Helwich, Sumiteru Okubo and Santiago Dieguez. The Brownies also walked three batters that inning.
With the score 4 to 0, Brook Park chipped away at the score by scoring three runs in the third on three walks intermixed with singles by Stan Lodge, Roberto Martinez and Pat Loder. The score was then tied in the fourth inning at 4 apiece as a result of an Ivan Alvarado sacrifice fly that followed singles by Millard Nielsen and Jorge Delgado.
The game-winning run came in the bottom of the sixth inning when Bernd Helwich was hit by a pitch followed by singles from Ismael Ramirez and Sumiteru Okubo. With the bases loaded a wild pitch allowed Helwich to score.
Bill Williams (6-6) got the win by pitching three innings of scoreless relief while Dave Furman notched his 19th save of the season while pitching a perfect ninth. Jose Martinez (10-8) took the loss.
Valencia 8 Brook Park 2
Third-baseman Jorge Garcia got things started with a bang for the Stars by hitting a three-run shot in the first inning over the center field wall after Bill Nesbitt and Ed Bush singled earlier in the inning.
The Brownies answered with two runs of their own in the second on a trifecta of doubles by Thurman Dosie, Austin Nolan and Hector Garcia. However, that would be the end of the Brook Park scoring for the day.
Meanwhile the Stars would continue to add to their lead by adding a run in the fifth on a Bill Nesbitt sacrifice fly. The scoring would conclude in the bottom of the seventh when Valencia tallied four more runs. After the first two batters recorded outs, the festivities began with doubles by Jesus Romero and Ed Bush along with singles by Bill Nesbitt and Shu-de Sa.
Sam Macpherson (4-9) gained the win by allowing two runs in six innings and crowd favorite Michael Dixon closed out the game by pitching two scoreless innings. Gamal bin Badr (2-5) was saddled with the loss.
Valencia 9 Brook Park 6
Valencia won its third game against the Brownies in as many tries. The bulk of the scoring for both teams was done in the second and the eighth innings.
A solo shot in the second inning by Ivan Alvarado got Brook Park on the board while the Stars batted all the way around the lineup in their half of the second. Valencia had four of its players cross the plate that inning as Shu-de Sa and Bernd Helwich each hit doubles and Gabriel Bacaloglu, Tim Bartlett and Santiago Dieguez each chipped in singles.
Ivan Alvarado struck again in the eighth inning with another home run and Stan Lodge hit a homer of his own to give the Brownies a 5-4 lead going into the bottom of the eighth. However, the Valencia bats proved to be too much as they accounted for five runs in the bottom half of the frame. A three-run shot by Sumiteru Okubo was the major blow while Jorge Garcia hit a solo homer of his own.
Brook Park tried to put together some ninth-inning heroics but closer Dave Furman slammed the door shut after one run was scored to record his 20th save.
Brook Park 4 Valencia 3
The Valencia bats got off to a slow start not scoring for the first seven innings. Meanwhile Brook Park scored two runs in the third thanks to a double to deep left field by Jorge Delgado followed by another double off the bat of Juan Orquiz. Ivan Alvarado drove in Orquiz with a single. The Brownies added another run in the fourth as a result of a Izz al Din bin Riyad solo homer over the left field wall. An insurance run was added in the sixth when bin Riyad doubled and later scored on a Stan lodge single.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, Valencia came storming back with three runs of their own as the Brownies pitching staff loaded up the bases by issuing three free passes. Jesus Huerta then further complicated the Brownies situation by balking in a run. Tim Bartlett then hit a two-run single making the score 4 to 3 but that is as close as the Stars would get.
Shiro Takahashi (3-10) took the loss while Felipe Mendez was credited with the win.
The series left the Valencia Stars with a record of 37-69 while Brook Park is sitting at 42-64.