Sun sets on successful Yolo roadtrip
High Wheelers win five-of-six in the Jackalopes series and goes 11-10 on the 21-game trip.
Yuba-Sutter Freebirds
17-13
7
Grand Junction Jackalopes
14-16
4
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 0 |
|
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2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 2 |
Grand Junction, Co.—-Yolo High Wheelers (40-36; 17-13) second baseman Bobby Lada (14, 15) belted a solo homer in the first and a two-run clout in the seventh as he guided his club to a 7-4 win over the Grand Junction Jackalopes (29-48; 14-16) on Sunday afternoon at Spulizio Field. The High Wheelers won five-of-six in the series and went 11-10 on the 21-game trip.
Over the six games, Lada reached base safely in 20 of his 28 plate appearances (.714 OBP) and was 13-21 (.619) with four homers and eight RBI's. It was his first multi-homer game this year. He leads the club with 66 RBI's.
"Bobby made some big adjustments this last series finishing big with 4 HR's, 8 RBI's , reaching base 20 out of 28 AB," said Yolo bench coach Gary Davenport.
The High Wheelers had ten batters—all reached base safely.
Left-hander Brandon Mitchell (4-1) started and retired 12 straight at one point as he earned the win in 6 1/3 innings. It was his first victory since July 12. He struck out four, gave up four runs (all earned) and issued four hits.
"Mitchell battled through his outing with some early control issues. He settled in and was in the zone better," said Yolo pitching coach Jerome Williams.
Mitchell attributed his performance to Williams, "I had a tough first inning but then had a pep talk from Jerome and I settled down from there."
Ty Buckner (9) pitched a perfect ninth for the save. He's second in the Pioneer League in that department.
"Our players performed great on this road trip," Yolo manager Billy Horton said. "Early in the trip we talked about our team goals and the guys did awesome. I also want to credit all of our coaches for everything they did to prepare our players for all of these games."
Horton added, "I don't know of too many professional teams that have gone on a 3 1/2 week road trip. The fact that we had a winning record is a big accomplishment for our team. God gets all the glory and the players deserve all the credit."
The High Wheelers have won six-of-their last seven games will have Monday off before starting a six-game homestand Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. against the Boise Hawks. Right-hander Luke Malone is the scheduled starter for Boise against Yolo righty Ben Ferrer. All games in that series are slated for 4:00 p.m.
HIGH TALES
Lada joins Jose Gonzalez and Braedon Blackford as High Wheelers who've homered in three straight games—a team high. His hitting streak is at seven games (14-26, five homers, .538)
Yolo won the season series over Grand Junction 9-3