Tapia’s sacrifice fly in ninth inning lifts Modesto Nuts to walk-off win over Quakes

Zach Jemiola flipped the script in his second California League start Tuesday night at John Thurman Field.

In his first outing June 4, following his promotion from Low-A Asheville (N.C.) of the South Atlantic League, Jemiola was solid for five innings before a rocky sixth inning resulted in a tough-luck loss to Stockton.

Tuesday, he was roughed up for three runs on three extra-base hits – two of them homers – in the first inning before settling down and retiring 16 of the final 19 batters he faced in the Nuts’ 5-4 walk-off win over the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes.

Jemiola didn’t last long enough to earn the win. Second baseman Cesar Galvez got him off the hook in the seventh inning when his sacrifice fly to center plated catcher Troy Stein and tied the score 3-3.

Rancho Cucamonga pulled ahead with a run in the eighth off reliever Devin Burke, but the Nuts rallied to win with two runs in the ninth.

In the Nuts’ ninth, first baseman Correlle Prime reached on a throwing error and Ashley Graeter walked and was replaced by pinch runner Dillon Thomas. Prime moved up on Stein’s fly ball to center.

Wilson Soriano singled to right, scoring Prime to tie the score and moving Thomas to third base.

After Soriano stole second, Galvez, the Nuts’ No. 9 hitter who is flirting with the Mendoza Line, was walked intentionally to load the bases for Raimel Tapia, who was hitless in his past 13 at-bats. Tapia’s fly ball to deep center allowed Thomas to tag up and trot home with the winning run.

After the Quakes’ big first inning – Rancho got a solo blast from Brandon Trinkwon and a two-run shot from Tyler Ogle that was aided by a stiff breeze, one that helped reduce the game-time temperature by 20 degrees from the previous night’s triple-digit scorcher – they managed just three more hits and five base runners the rest of the way.

“I just elevated my fastball to the first couple of hitters,” said Jemiola, who was 6-3 with a 3.16 ERA for Asheville. “I wasn’t that loose and I was trying to amp up my pitches and, as result, I left them up.”

According to Jemiola, he wasn’t able to command his breaking ball early on, either.

“That team was hunting fastballs,” said Nuts manager Fred Ocasio. “Once he started mixing in some breaking balls, he was able to keep them off balance.”

Burke picked up where Jemiola left off after six innings, striking out the first two hitters he faced and retiring the side in order in the seventh. He gave up a double to Travis Witherspoon, a .117 hitter who was hitless in his previous 11 at-bats, in the eighth, and Witherspoon scored on a groundout by the Cal League’s leading hitter, Kyle Farmer (.344). Burke pitched around a single in the ninth.

“He came in throwing strikes and locating all of his pitches, which is what you have to do as a reliever,” Stein said. “He came in and did what he had to do to get people out.”

Modesto cut into Rancho’s 3-0 lead when Ryan McMahon drove in Jordan Patterson with his league-leading 23rd double of the season in the bottom of the first. The Nuts made it 3-2 in the third when Patterson led off with his league-leading 10th triple and later raced home on a groundout by McMahon.

Though McMahon extended his hitting streak to six games, he failed to get multiple hits for the first time in five games. He’s hitting .480 during the streak.

Patterson’s triple ignited a bit of drama. His drive to the corner in right one-hopped the wall and appeared to bounce off the metal sign honoring former owner Fred Anderson. Since the sign sits slightly above and behind the fence, any ball that bounces and hits it should be a ground-rule double. Quakes manager Bill Haselman appeared to argue this point and was ejected from the game. Rancho Cucamonga pitching coach Bill Simas was ejected an inning later.

The Nuts are in Bakersfield on Thursday to begin a four-game set against the Blaze. They will return home Monday for a seven-game homestand against San Jose (three) and High Desert (four).

This story was originally published June 10, 2015 at 1:17 AM with the headline "Tapia’s sacrifice fly in ninth inning lifts Modesto Nuts to walk-off win over Quakes."