Modesto falls in opener to Cal League’s South leader Rancho Cucamonga

The Rancho Cucamonga Quakes scored 12 runs before the Modesto Nuts even got on the board en route to a 12-4 California League victory at LoanMart Field.

With the loss, Modesto falls to nine games of the first-place Visalia Rawhide in the race for the North Division’s first-half title.

Visalia defeated last-place Bakersfield 10-5 on Wednesday.

Nuts starter Grahamm Wiest was roughed up for seven hits and seven runs – three of those runs coming on back-to-back homers in the third by Tyler Ogle and Paul Hoenecke – in just 2 2/3 innings. Jacob Newberry, who came on to relieve Wiest, fared no better, yielding three hits, a walk and four earned runs in just two-thirds of an inning pitched.

Sam Moll came on for Modesto and settled things down, going three innings with no hits, no walks and no runs allowed. Moll retired nine of the 10 batters he faced. The only Quake he did not retire reached on an error.

Modesto broke into the scoring column with two in the sixth – getting an RBI double from Ryan McMahon and a run-scoring single for Correlle Prime – and two in the eighth – Prime drove in another run with his second hit of the contest.

A bright spot for Modesto was the bat of Jordan Patterson, who finished 3-for-4 and raised his average to .348, two points behind Cal League leader Hunter Cole of San Jose.

Patterson, a 6-foot-4, 215-pound right fielder out of South Alabama, is hitting .403 in May.

Modesto has two more games in Rancho Cucamonga – both 7:05 p.m. starts – before another critical four-game set with the Rawhide in Visalia starting Saturday. The Nuts took three of four from the Rawhide last weekend in Modesto.

This story was originally published May 27, 2015 at 11:16 PM with the headline "Modesto falls in opener to Cal League’s South leader Rancho Cucamonga."