Aces Surge from Fifth Inning On in 10-5 Victory Over Bees
RENO, Nev. – The first half of Thursday’s contest seemed like it would go the way of the Salt Lake Bees, but much like Wednesday, the Reno Aces saved their best for last and poured on nine runs in their final four sets of at-bats for a 10-5 victory. It
RENO, Nev. – The first half of Thursday’s contest seemed like it would go the way of the Salt Lake Bees, but much like Wednesday, the Reno Aces saved their best for last and poured on nine runs in their final four sets of at-bats for a 10-5 victory.
It was the Bees (3-9) that reached the scoreboard first, doing so once in each the second and third frames. While the Aces (8-4) cut into that edge in the home half of the third with a Ryan Waldschmidt triple, Salt Lake snatched the run back to start the fifth with a Jose Siri solo homer.
Reno’s response started in the bottom of the frame, plating four to completely erase the deficit they faced. All four runs were scored with two outs, and it started with a bang as Waldschmidt crushed his first Triple-A home run in solo fashion out to left field in a 1-0 count.
The Aces were not through with the big flies in the fifth as Aramis Garcia followed a walk and fielder’s choice with his third home run of the season, sending a 2-2 offering over the wall in right field. That marked the fourth straight game that an Aces backstop has hit a home run, and Reno catchers lead the Pacific Coast League in home runs.
A Kristian Robinson single turned into a run thanks to an Anderdson Rojas double up the middle, but the Bees returned the score to just one after pushing across two more tallies of their own in the top of the seventh.
Undeterred, Reno added two more runs of insurance in each the seventh and eighth, which included RBI doubles from Garcia and LuJames Groover (two RBI).
Big at the dish for the Aces was Arizona’s top prospect Waldschmidt, who finished 4-for-5 and was just a double shy of the cycle. He finished with two singles on the night, the last was a bunt that went for a single in the home half of the eighth.
Three others had multi-hit efforts, including a 2-for-5 performance from Garcia as he scored a pair of runs and drove in four total RBI.
Both starters were the pitchers of record, meaning lefty Kohl Drake (1-0) picked up his first win of the season after he allowed just three runs on six hits in five innings with two strikeouts and no walks.
Reno has won each of the first three games of this series, and they will look for the outright series win when both sides meet at Greater Nevada Field for game four at 6:05 p.m. PT.