Visalia, CA – Junior Ciprian pitched six excellent innings and the Visalia Rawhide (15-25) defeated the Lake Elsinore Storm (23-17) on Tuesday night in the series opener at Valley Strong Ballpark.
Ciprian retired the first 12 batters of the game and pitched the Rawhide’s first quality start of the season. Over six innings he allowed just two hits and two runs with five strikeouts.
The right hander from the Dominican Republic now holds a 3.03 ERA in eight starts this season.
Visalia’s bullpen closed out an excellent pitching effort. Teofilo Mendez tossed two hitless innings with four strikeouts. Luke Dotson earned his third save of the season with a strikeout in a scoreless ninth.
The Rawhide opened the scoring in the second. Pedro Catuy reached on a bloop double that bounced off the Storm’s first baseman’s glove. He stole third base and scored on a wild pitch.
Enyervert Perez bashed a two run home run to right field in the fourth for a 3-0 ballgame. Perez hit his fourth homer of the season and third in his last eight games.
Lake Elsinore plated two runs in the fifth courtesy of two walks and a two RBI single.
Visalia extended the lead to two runs with a tally in the bottom of the fifth. Kayson Cunningham doubled to the left field gap and Carlos Virahonda drove him home with an RBI double down the left field line.
Cunningham extended his hit and run streak to eleven games while JD Dix was hit by a pitch and reached for a 10th straight game. Visalia has won four straight games at Valley Strong Ballpark.
The series continues on Wednesday between Visalia and Lake Elsinore with a Rawhide Rustler Wednesday. Fans 55 and older can join the Rawhide Rustlers senior club to receive a ticket to every Wednesday game plus giveaways throughout the season.
Great8 Wednesdays also offer $8 tickets to the Kaweah Health Grandstands. Plus fans 21 and older can enjoy $8 cocktails. And all fans can play ballpark bingo on Wednesdays.
All Rawhide tickets are available through the team’s website and at the stadium box office presented by Kaweah Health starting at 10 AM on weekdays.
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The Visalia Rawhide are the Single-A Affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks playing professional baseball in the Central Valley since 1946. The Rawhide's 2026 theme is "Savor the Season" as the team transforms into the Central Valley Sir Loins on Saturday gamedays.
Stay up to date with the Rawhide on the team’s website and by following the Rawhide on Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and X. The Rawhide play all home games at Valley Strong Ballpark located at 300 N Giddings Street Visalia, CA 93291.
Fans can purchase season ticket packages, group ticket plans, single game tickets and team merchandise through the Rawhide website and at the stadium ticket office sponsored by Kaweah Health. All Rawhide games can be watched on MLB.TV and the Bally Sports Live App with a free radio broadcast also available online. Select home games will be aired on KNXT MyTV53. For more information, visit milb.com/visalia, email info@rawhidebaseball.com or call (559) 732-4433.