Storm Rebounds, Wins Its Division Title

The Rancho Cucamonga monkey is officially off the backs of the Lake Elsinore Storm.

And, boy, did the champagne flow liberally in the clubhouse celebration.

Winning Game 4, 1-0, to clinch the South Division Tuesday at The Diamond at Lake Elsinore, Lake Elsinore got another gem of a game from one of its starting pitchers.

Left-hander Nick Schmidt delivered in a beautiful way, cruising through eight scoreless innings of two-hit work. He struck out nine and earned his second win of the series, as the Storm won the series, 3-1. Sidearm lefty Jeff Ibarra pitched a perfect ninth for his first save of the series.

Storm right fielder Jake Blakewood brought in the only run of the game with an RBI single in the bottom of the fourth.

Game One of the California League Finals, a best-of-five game series, is at 7:05 p.m. on Thursday against Stockton, who won its North Division Series, 3-1, after beating San Jose, 4-2 on Tuesday.

Game One will be at The Diamond at Lake Elsinore, with Jose DePaula the starting pitcher. Game 2 is at 7:05 on Friday at Lake Elsinore, with Mike Watt earning the starting nod. Game 3 is Saturday at Stockton. Game 4, if necessary, is Sunday at Stockton, with Andrew Werner the starter, and Game 5, also if necessary, is Monday at Stockton, with Schmidt the likely starter.

“I’m very blessed to have this opportunity,” Schmidt said. “I’m so thankful. Pitching-wise, we’ve got to do the same thing. It’s not a one-sided affair. We’ve got to help pick up our bats.”

Schmidt, who consistently threw 95 mile-an-hour fastballs along with an 85 mph curve, along with Game 3 winner Andrew Werner, helped exorcise some demons of recent past. Werner threw seven innings of scoreless ball in a 3-2 Game 3 victory that set up Tuesday’s clincher.

The Quakes won three of the past four playoff meetings, including each of the past three – 2010, 2009 and 1998.

“I’m happy for our guys,” Lake Elsinore interim manager Phil Plantier said. “Schmitty was outstanding. He was on tonight. We pitched extremely well this series. It was nice to see every guy on our pitching staff contribute this series.

Rancho Cucamonga starting pitcher Chris Reed, a first-round pick by the Los Angeles Dodgers this past spring, was also brilliant. He allowed four hits in five innings, struck out seven and the first-year pro out of Stanford University walked one.

“For seeing these guys for the 29th time, it was the first time we saw him all year. He kept the ball down in the zone, he threw well.”

Blakewood drove in the difference maker in the bottom of the fourth inning, on an RBI single that scored Nathan Freiman, who had earlier hit a seeing-eye single with two outs. Eddy Rodriguez hit Freiman to third on another single.

“I was trying to get a good pitch that I could put a good swing on,” Rodriguez said. “I was able to put a good barrel on the ball, it broke my bat and everything worked out for us.”

Blakewood is a nice story, having been taken by the San Diego Padres in the Rule V Draft in 2010, and he played in the Independent League last season.

“Jake’s been swinging the bat extremely well,” Plantier said. “He’s dialed in, and we’ll need some more of that in our next series coming up.”

Schmidt threw a no-hitter through four innings, before center fielder Reymond Fuentes misjudged a hard-hit long line drive by Blake Smith for a leadoff double. Schmidt escaped trouble by striking out the next batter, then he induced flyouts from the next two hitters.

Schmidt got out of another jam in the seventh. Angelo Songco led off with a bunt that Schmidt appeared to miscommunicate with second baseman Jonathan Galvez, as he did not field the ball. Songco reached second on a wild pitch, but Schmidt struck out Smith and then Tony Delmonico to escape further trouble.