Wasilewski’s 1st Save Stops Gulls’ Slide

RENO —  Gulls’ pitcher Tom Wasilewski earned his first save of the season Saturday night, and no one can say it came cheaply.

The 6-3, 200-pound right-hander, who has worked as a starter most of the season, was called upon to record the final two outs of Ventura County’s 6-3 California League victory over the Reno Padres. He entered the game with the bases loaded and Reno’s top two power hitters at the plate.

Wasilewski first came back from a 3-and-0 count to strike out Thomas Howard, who bats third for Reno, and then faced first baseman Brad Pounders, the Padres’ cleanup hitter and the league’s home run leader with 30. Wasilewski went the distance with Pounders, going to a 3-and-2 count before inducing the UC Riverside product to bounce out to third base.

The victory ended a pair of streaks. The Gulls stopped a five-game slide and also concluded a Padre win streak at six.

Wasilewski preserved the victory for Hugh Brinson (10-6), who pitched the first five innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits and two walks. He gave way to Todd Provence in the sixth, who turned the game over to William Shanks in the eighth. Shanks leads the team with 15 saves but ran into trouble in the ninth after working a 1-2-3 eighth.

Two walks and a single sandwiched around a fly out loaded the bases with one out and set the stage for Wasilewski.

The Gulls had jumped to a 4-0 lead, scoring twice in the first and third innings. Geronimo Berroa’s 19th home run, a two-run shot over the left-field fence, gave Ventura County a 2-0 lead and a run-scoring single by Luis Reyna and RBI ground out by Berroa in the third made it 4-0.

The Gulls extended the lead to 5-0 on a fourth inning home run by Mike Jones, his first of the year, before Reno scored twice in the bottom of the inning on a single by Pounders followed by Dave Cortez’s triple and a throwing error by Omar Malave.

Cortez picked up an RBI with a single in the sixth and Reyna singled home Kevin Batiste in the seventh for his third RBI of the game.