Good Things Come In Fours
The Storm thunder into the All-Stars with a quad of squad.

Ketan Dhalwan

Lake Elsinore - 06.11.03 - It seems that good things come in fours. The Lake Elsinore Storm are sending four players to the California League All-Star team, tying them with the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes for the most players sent by any team in the California League.

Josh Barfield, J.J. Furmaniak, Greg Sain and Mike Wodnicki will represent the Storm at the annual California-Carolina League All-Star Game, which will be played June 24 at the Epicenter in Rancho Cucamonga.

The delightful duo of Barfield and Furmaniak will be gong into June’s game ranked 1st and 2nd in the league in hits and batting average, respectively. The 20 year old Barfield, who leads the league with a .357 average, 94 hits, and 60 RBIs, also has a myriad of other accomplishments.

He ranked second in the league in doubles (21), third in extra-base hits (33), fourth in slugging percentage (.559), and fourth in runs scored (46). Furmaniak is second only to his teammate in hits, and is also tied for the league lead in extra-base hits with 34, second in runs (51) and triples (6), third in slugging percentage (.577) and on-base percentage (.410) and fourth in RBI (48). They, combined, give a thunderous edge to the All-Star team.

Sain and Wodnicki bring big bats to the party as well. Sain is tied for the league lead in home runs, with 13 big ones. The third-baseman also has 36 runs scored, thirteen doubles and boasts a .529 slugging percentage. Wodnicki holds a team best 2.43 ERA and is considered to be one of the best pitchers in the league.

In contrast, The Storm only sent two players to All-Star game last year, reassessing their tremendous improvement since then. They won the California League’s Southern Division Championship last year, and are favored to do so again this year.