In a game about as crazy — but not as scripted — as the postgame lucha libre Mexican wrestling show at Arrowhead Credit Union Park, the Sixers rallied from two four-run deficits to down Lake Elsinore 11-9 on Friday night.

Sixers starting pitcher Kyle Hurst was knocked out of the game after three batters in the first inning when he apparently felt something in his shoulder and had to come out.

The Sixers trailed 5-1 in the third inning and 7-3 in the fifth but rallied.

RBI singles by Kole Calhoun and Eric Oliver in the sixth tied the score 7-7.

Lake Elsinore took a 9-7 lead in the eighth on a two-run single by Reymond Fuentes, his fourth hit of the game.

The Sixers rallied in the bottom half, with help from Lake Elsinore defense. Matt Long’s fairly routine fly ball to left was played into a triple when left fielder Wande Olabisi and  Fuentes miscommunicated. Michael Wing’s third hit of the game, an RBI single put the Sixers within 9-8. After a fly out, Jason Ray came into pitch and got a potential inning-ending double play grounder to third but third baseman Jacob Blackwood couldn’t handle it for an error. Dillon Baird’s RBI single to right tied it and Carlos Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly that gave the Sixers a 10-9 lead. David Harris drove in his first run as a Sixer with a double off the wall in right.

Mike Kenney (3-3), who was charged with the second of two runs in the top of the eighth got the win. He stayed in for the ninth and after Danny Payne singled for his fourth hit of the game to start the inning, Kenney retired the next three batters to preserve the win.

The Sixers used five relievers in the game and only one, Eric Cendejas (who faced only three batters) wasn’t charged with a run. But understandably, the bullpen as a whole got the game ball.

Jose Jimenez’s two-run single with two outs in the top of the 12th inning snapped a 7-7 tie and the 66ers downed Modesto 9-7 at John Thurman Field on Thursday night.

It was the first road extra-inning win of the season for the Sixers (40-51 overall, 8-13 second half).

Jimenez, the 66ers catcher, then provided the decisive defensive play as he threw out Carlos Martinez trying to steal on a game-ending strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play.

The Sixers had taken a 7-3 lead in the top of the eighth, but the Nuts answered with four in the bottom half to tie it up.

Eric Oliver was 3 for 6 with two runs and an RBI, Matt Long homered and scored four runs and Kole Calhoun walked three times and scored three times. The Sixers won despite being out-hit 14-9.

Reigning league Pitcher Of the Week Ariel Pena allowed three runs while striking out eight in 5 2/3 innings. Although Kevin Nabors allowed the four runs in the eighth, the Sixers’ other three relievers were very solid: Caleb Graham, Kevin Johnson and Buddy Boshers (1-4) combined for six shutout innings.

Nate Freiman’s RBI double with one out in the 11th inning snapped a 5-5 tie and sent Lake Elsinore to an 8-5 victory over the 66ers on Thursday night, in the first game of the second half.

Lake Elsinore improved to 1-5 in extra-inning games and became the last team in the league to win an extra-inning game. The Sixers dropped to 2-3 in extra-inning games, all of which have been at Arrowhead Credit Union Park.

Michael Wing’s RBI single with one out in the seventh had tied the score 5-5 and sent it into extra innings.

Wing finished 2 for 5, as did Kole Calhoun, Casey Haerther and Dillon Baird, in his first game back with the team. Steven Irvine finished a triple short of the cycle.

Two of the Sixers relievers in the game, Mike Kenney and Kevin Johnson (1-1), who took the loss, will be speaking today (Friday) at Dollahan Elementary School in Rialto as part of the after school “Think Together” program at about 2:30 p.m.

It’s hot here in Modesto for the all-star game, reaching triple digits

Three Quakes are representing the California League. Left fielder Angelo Songco is batting sixth, catcher Gorman Erickson is eighth and shortstop Jake Lemmerman is ninth. They’re all far down in the lineup from where they usually hit, but understand that theyre in a loaded lineup.

San Jose’s Gary Brown, a Diamond Bar High alum, is batting leadoff and playing center field. Rancho Cucamonga High’s Josh Fellhauer, a Bakersfield outfielder, will be coming off the bench.

Lancaster’s Kody Hinze just won the Home Run Derby, beating Winston-Salem’s Ian Gac in the finals.

Reliever David Carpenter, the lone 66er named to the team, was promoted to Double-A Arkansas on Monday, leaving the Sixers with no players in the game.

The Quakes clinched at least a tie for the South Division first-half title with a 4-3 victory over the 66ers on Monday night at the Epicenter.

They now lead the Sixers and Mavericks by six games each with six games remaining, but the victory may cost them one of their three all-stars.

Starting all-star shortstop Jake Lemmerman was hit on the side of his right (throwing) hand with a pitch in the seventh inning and came out of the game. He went for x-rays after the game.

“If it’s broken, he’ll miss the all-star game,” Quakes manager Juan Bustabad said.

If it isn’t broken, Lemmerman is just day to day and the Quakes don’t make a roster move, they will probably go with the defensive alignment they used for the final two innings Monday: second baseman Rafael Ynoa at shortstop, third baseman Travis Denker at second and Tony Delmonico at third.

All the Quakes need to do to clinch the first half title before hitting the road is win either Tuesday or Wednesday.

While the Quakes could have just as easily seen their lead in the South Division trimmed down to three games, instead it’s up to five as they lowered their magic number to clinch the first-half title to six. They lead High Desert and the 66ers by five games each with 10 games remaining.

In the late innings, the Quakes were tied with Visalia and High Desert was tied with Lake Elsinore.

But Rafael Ynoa’s RBI single with two outs in the eighth snapped the tie and lifted the Quakes to a 4-3 victory. Meanwhile, in Adelanto, Lake Elsinore scored three times in the top of the ninth to record a 12-9 victory. The Sixers kept pace with a 3-2 win over Lancaster.

The North Division was certainly a foregone conclusion as San Jose was running away with the first-half title. With Thursday’s win over Modesto, coupled with Bakersfield’s loss to Stockton, San Jose had a 11 1/2 game lead with 10 games remaining and clinched the North. It marked the eighth straight year San Jose qualified for the playoffs and the seventh straight year they won the first-half title.

Matt Long’s third hit of the game, a line single with one out in the 14th, scored Kole Calhoun from second base as the 66ers defeated Lake Elsinore 6-5. It completed a four-game sweep for the Sixers (22-27) before 3,084 at Arrowhead Credit Union Park. It was their first sweep of any kind this season, their first four-game winning streak of the season and their first four-game sweep of Lake Elsinore since 2006.

It was also the Sixers’ longest game of the season in terms of innings. They are 2-2 in extra inning games, all of which have been at home.

Long also hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning that tied the score, 4-4. But Long was just the last of many heroes in the game for the Sixers, which included:

The bullpen of Michael Piazza, Mike Kenney, David Carpenter, Kevin Johnson, Buddy Boshers and Kevin Nabors, who combined to pitch 11 innings of relief and allowed just one run. Nabors (1-1), who entered the game with a 24.55 ERA, came into the game with two outs in the top of the 14th to face Jedd Gyorko, who is third in the league in batting, tied for second in home runs. With runners on first and third, Nabors got Gyorko to ground out to third.

“I told him, ‘you’re going to get the final out and we’re going to score and you’re going to get the win,’” Sixers manager Tom Gamboa said. “I’m glad we did.”

Another hero was Steven Irvine, in his first game back with the Sixers, singled with two outs in the ninth inning to drive in Adam Younger (who had doubled) and tie the score 5-5. Irvine finished 3 for 6.

In the 14th, Calhoun drew a one-out walk against Dustin Pease (0-3), his fourth walk of the game. Casey Haerther’s infield single sent Calhoun to second. With a runner on second base in both the 10th and 12th innings, Long was intentionally walked and the Sixers didn’t score. This time there was no base open and Long lined a single to right and Calhoun avoided the tag of catcher Jason Hagerty to set off the wild celebration.

“He (Long) is a streaky hitter. It looks like he’s in one of those good streaks again,” Gamboa said.

When the 66ers rallied from a 16-7 deficit in the fifth inning to down Bakersfield 24-19 on April 16, it was certainly one for the ages. Of course, it set the league record for longest nine-inning game (4:55), but it seemed unlikely another team in the league would come back from nine runs down any time soon.

But on Thursday, less than 3 weeks later, the Quakes did exactly that. They trailed 10-1 at Lancaster after two innings and it was still 10-1 as they went to the fifth, but rallied to win, 17-11 to sweep a four-game series. It was a little different than the Sixers’ comeback. The Sixers scored 10 in the fifth in their comeback to take the lead, then broke a 19-19 tie with five runs in the ninth.

The Quakes didn’t do it as much as quickly, but unlike Bakersfield, Lancaster had no answer, with only one baserunner during the final four innings. A five-run Quakes fifth made it 10-6 and it was still 11-7 entering the eighth. After Lancaster retired the first batter, Pedro Guerrero, the Quakes really started hitting.

The next four batters hit for the cycle: Nick Buss double, Jake Lemmerman RBI triple, Angelo Songco RBI single and Blake Smith’s two-run homer that tied the score 11-11. After a Gorman Erickson walk, JetHawks closer Kirk Clark came in and J.T. Wise belted the first pitch he saw for a two-run homer that gave the Quakes the lead for good, 13-11. They scored four more runs against Clark in the ninth to win going away.

Songco and Buss had four hits apiece in the Quakes’ 19-hit attack. In addition to the two-run homers from Smith and Wise, Travis Denker and Buss also hit two-run homers. Smith drove in a game-high four runs. Jordan Roberts (1-0) retired all 11 batters he faced to earn the win in relief.

The win improved the Quakes to 18-10, good enough for a five-game South Division lead over the 66ers (13-15), who finished a 2-5 homestand with a 10-3 loss to Stockton on Thursday.

Kudos to 66ers broadcaster Sam Farber for broadcasting all of the 66ers game on Saturday night in Bakersfield, and good luck to him broadcasting Sunday’s afternoon game in San Jose.

Saturday’s Sixers game at Bakersfield featured a combined 43 runs, 49 hits and seven errors. And four hours, 55 minutes after they started, the Sixers outlasted the Bakersfield Blaze 24-19.

The game set a league record for longest 9-inning game (4:55). The old record? A mere 4:10 for the highest-scoring game in league history, a 33-18 game between Lake Elsinore and High Desert in 2009.

Some of the details:

• The Sixers trailed 16-7 in the sixth inning, when they scored 10 runs, capped by Dillon Baird’s second home run of the game, a two-run shot to go up 17-16. All those runs scored with no outs and the first 11 batters of the inning reached base by hit or walk.
• Eric Campbell of Bakersfield had six RBIs, including an RBI double in the bottom of the eighth that tied the score, 19-19. Campbell was 4 for 4 to raise his average to a robust .559. He has a pretty good chance to be the league’s first hitter of the week, to be announced on Monday.
• Baird’s RBI double in the ninth started a five-run rally and snapped the 19-19 tie.
• Baird finished 5 for 5 with four runs and five RBIs. Dwayne Bailey had two hits and five RBIs for the Sixers, raising his average to .129. Jean Segura also had five hits for the Sixers.
• Of the 11 pitchers combined in the game, only two (one for each team) didn’t allow a run. Jose Perez (1-0) pitched the final 1 1/3 shutout innings to earn the win.
• All 10 of the Sixers batters (including substitution Ryan Broussard) had a hit and scored a run.

The California League is usually a training ground, for not only players, but also for coaches and managers.

But for the latest 66ers manager, Tom Gamboa, he’s already had plenty of training. The Angels, the newest affiliate for the 66ers, announced Tuesday that Gamboa would manage the team in 2011. Gamboa has worked in baseball since 1974, when he was only 26. He spent 5 seasons (1998-99, 2001-03) as a big league coach. He last managed  for the Angels’ Double-A Arkansas team in 2005.

Part of the attraction for Gamboa, 62, is that San Bernardino is less than an hour away from his home in Rancho Mirage, near Palm Springs. Gamboa plans on getting an apartment in the San Bernardino area, but will be able to spend off-days and maybe the evening after a day game back in his own bed.

Gamboa also has a great relationship with Angels farm director Abe Flores, with whom he has a long friendship.

Gamboa will be joined on the Sixers’ staff by hitting coach Damon Mashore and pitching coach Dan Ricabal, who had both been part of the Quakes staff the last few years.

Keith Johnson, the Quakes manager who led the team to within one game of a Cal League title, was promoted to Triple-A Salt Lake and will manage there. It’s perfect for Johnson, who calls Utah home in the off-season.